The overall number of deaths from COVID-19 exceeds 2M amid vaccine launches

The overall number of deaths from COVID-19 exceeded 2 million on Friday as vaccines were developed at full speed around the world in a total campaign to overcome the threat.

The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The death toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is almost equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It is roughly equivalent to the population of the Cleveland metropolitan area or the entire state of Nebraska.

Although the count is based on figures provided by government agencies around the world, the actual toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part due to inadequate evidence and the numerous fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes. , especially at the beginning of the outbreak.

It took eight months to reach one million deaths. It took less than four months later to reach the next million.

“Behind this terrible number are names and faces: the smile that will now only be a memory, the empty seat forever on the dinner table, the room that resonates with the silence of a loved one,” said the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He said the toll “has worsened due to the absence of a coordinated global effort.”

“Science has been successful, but solidarity has failed,” he said.

In rich countries such as the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, millions of citizens have already received some protection with at least one dose of vaccine developed with a revolutionary revolution and quickly authorized for use.

But elsewhere, vaccination actions have barely begun. Many experts predict another year of losses and hardship in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil, which together account for about a quarter of the world’s deaths.