The number of lives lost by the pandemic is almost equal to the population of Kiev, Ukraine, or Caracas, Venezuela.
The global death toll from coronavirus has surpassed a staggering three million, with more than 140 million cases amid repeated setbacks in the vaccination campaign and a deep crisis in places like Brazil, India and France.
The number of lives lost as of Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins University compilation, is almost equal to the population of Kiev (Ukraine), Caracas (Venezuela) or Lisbon (Portugal). It is larger than Chicago’s population of 2.7 million, and equates to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.
And the actual number is believed to be significantly higher due to possible government concealment and numerous cases ignored in the early stages of the outbreak that was first reported in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.
When in January of this year the world passed the threshold of two million deaths, vaccination initiatives had just begun in Europe and the United States.
Today, vaccination is underway in more than 190 countries, although advances in controlling the virus vary widely.
Although campaigns in the United States and the United Kingdom have taken a big step and people and businesses are beginning to contemplate life after the pandemic, other places, mostly poorer countries but also some rich ones, are lagging behind in put gunshots and have imposed new blockades and other restrictions as virus cases increase.
“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months in a pandemic, where we have tested control measures,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, one of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 experts.
In Brazil, where deaths run at about 3,000 a day, accounting for a quarter of the lives lost worldwide in recent weeks, the crisis has been likened to a “furious hell” by a WHO official.
A more contagious variant of the virus has spread across the country.
As cases increase, hospitals run out of critical sedatives. As a result, there have been reports of some doctors diluting the remaining supplies and even tying patients to the beds while the breathing tubes are thrown down their throats.
Taking signals from President Jair Bolsonaro, who has compared the virus to little more than the flu, his health ministry opted for months for a single vaccine, ignoring other producers. When bottlenecks arose, it was too late to get large amounts on time.
In India, cases rose in February after weeks of steady decline, which shocked authorities. In a wave driven by virus variants, India has recorded more than 200,000 daily infections recorded three times over the past week, bringing the total number of cases to more than 14.5 million.
Vaccine problems
The WHO has recently described the situation of vaccine supply as precarious.
According to one estimate, up to 60 countries may not receive more firing until June. To date, COVAX, the global initiative for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, has delivered some 40 million doses to more than 100 countries, enough to cover just 0.25 percent of the world’s population.
Globally, about 87 percent of the 700 million doses dispensed have been distributed in rich countries.
Although one in four people in rich nations has received a vaccine, in poor countries the figure is one in 500.
In recent days, the United States and some European countries have suspended the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine while authorities are investigating extremely rare but dangerous blood clots. AstraZeneca vaccine has also been affected by delays and restrictions due to a clotting fright.