MORE than 4 million people across the globe have died from the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The milestone comes as global infections are also on the rise, with the highly transmissible delta variant likely playing a role.
According to the World Health Organization, all regions reported an increase in new cases last week except for the Americas. Over 185 million cases of the virus have been documented worldwide.
New global deaths, however, have been decreasing.
Last week’s global mortality figure was the lowest since October 2020, according to WHO. Still, experts believe the global death toll to be a vast undercount.
But the delta coronavirus variant is posing a problem in unvaccinated populations. More than 100 countries have documented the variant, according to WHO.
“Compounded by fast-moving variants and shocking inequity in vaccination, far too many countries in every region of the world are seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalizations,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
“Based on the estimated transmission advantage of the Delta variant, it is expected that Delta will rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant circulating lineage over the coming months,” WHO reported in its weekly epidemiological update.
Meanwhile, over 3.3 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered across the world. But “as a global community, we are failing” on COVID-19 vaccine supply, according to Tedros.
The vast majority of vaccines have been administered in high and upper-middle-income countries.
- US NEWS
