The world passed 2 million coronavirus deaths on Friday, an impressive toll that continues to rise as the most contagious variants of the virus are taken advantage of.
The United States has had by far the largest number of deaths and cases in any country in the world, with more than 390,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University. They are followed by Brazil, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
China reported its first death since May this week, when a World Health Organization (WHO) team came to investigate the origins of the pandemic there after previously expressing concern that Beijing would obstruct the investigation.
China has been examined for its level of transparency about the outbreak and the accuracy of its death and cases.
New coronavirus variants are now leading to an even faster spread of the virus, with strains discovered in the UK and South Africa of particular concern.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned on Friday that the UK variant could be the predominant strain in the United States in March.
“Increasing the transmissibility of the … variant guarantees universality and greater compliance with mitigation strategies, including distancing and masking,” the CDC warned.
Vaccines offer some hope of taming the pandemic, but it will be a few months before they become widely available in the United States and possibly significantly over some other countries.
Health officials therefore urge people to continue wearing masks and distancing themselves from others.
“It’s really important to remind people, both the government and the people, of the responsibilities and measures we need to take at least the rest of this year, because even when vaccines start protecting the most vulnerable, they don’t we will achieve any level of immunity of the population, immunity of the herd, in 2021, ”WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said this week.