Worst Outbreak of the Century: Worldwide Deaths Due to COVID-19 Now Surpassed 5 Million

The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center have held that pfficial COVID-19 deaths reported globally had surpassed 5 million.

Since the deadly virus was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China, the number of cases recorded reached 246.7 million. In the past 28 days, 197,116 died of Covid-19 worldwide. However, JHU's tally of coronavirus deaths reached 5,000,425, Monday.

World Health Organization (WHO) said that number of cases and deaths globally are increasing for the first time in two months, "driven by ongoing increases in Europe," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"It's another reminder that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over," he said. "The pandemic persists in large part because inequitable access to tools persists."

Tedros noted that high-income countries have accessed and administered COVID-19 tests and vaccines 80 and 30 times more, respectively, than that in poorer countries.

Worst outbreak of the century

(Photo : Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images))
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 21: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Clinicians care for COVID-19 patients in a makeshift ICU (Intensive Care Unit) at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on January 21, 2021 in Torrance, California. The hospital is over its ICU capacity due to the coronavirus and has been forced to treat multiple COVID-19 patients who require ICU level care together in converted rooms which were designed for lower levels of care. California has become the first state in the nation to record 3 million known COVID-19 infections. Los Angeles County reported more than 250 COVID-19 fatalities on January 21.

After almost two years since the first coronavirus death was reported, the world has never been the same. The virus that originated at a Wuhan seafood market caused far more damages than that one might imagine. In the farthest depths and corners of Earth, someone had died, lost a family, or lost a job, among other things.

Subsequently after the coronavirus death from the Philippines - the first recorded case outside of China, different other countries followed, with United States as the worst hit.

According to JHU data, US had reported around 46 million cases and more than 745,800 deaths, the highest numbers around the world, surpassing the deadliest pandemic in US history.

Meanwhile, Russia battles its 'worst-ever' phase, with 40,096 cases and 1,159 deaths less than a week ago. The country's capital city of Moscow had launched new Covid-19 restrictions since, with hopes that coronavirus cases and deaths across the country will plummet.

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Wide gap in access to vaccines

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While Covid vaccines have become available around the world, several low-income countries are still having wide gaps in access to vaccines. Out of 7 billion doses distributed worldwide, only 3.6% were administered to these nations.

Tedros said that every country would have reached our 40% target by now if vaccines were distributed equally.

"As it is, health workers and vulnerable people in low and middle-income countries remain unprotected, oxygen isn't getting to those who need it, and a lack of testing is leaving many countries blind to how the virus is circulating, and the world blind to emerging variants," he said in a news briefing.

Apart from that, some countries remain hesitant in getting vaccine, particularly in the US. "It's the unvaccinated that is driving this current surge that is resulting in many hospitalizations, the need for intensive care units and the record number of deaths we're seeing," said Dr. Henry Bernstein, former member of the CDC advisory committee on immunization practices.

As a matter of fact, access to vaccines made gradual changes of making countries normal again, with lighter restrictions than before but with wider awareness.

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