Covid-19: Global death toll passes 3 million

By Vatican News staff reporter

Another grim milestone was passed on Tuesday in the battle against COVID-19.  Latest figures show that worldwide Coronavirus-related deaths crossed the 3 million mark.

What’s worrying about this tally is that it took over a year for the death toll to reach 2 million, whereas it took only three months for another million to be added to this long list of Coronavirus victims.

Despite vaccination campaigns, COVID-19 infections are on the rise with health officials laying the blame at more infectious variants that were first identified in the UK and South Africa.

But they also say public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions are having a knock-on effect.

Countries worst affected

One country which is a cause for concern is Brazil, with the World Health Organization saying the country is in a very critical condition with an overwhelmed healthcare system.

India too reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections on Monday, becoming the second nation after the United States to report more than 100,000 new cases in a day.

The spotlight is also on the European region, which includes 51 countries, and has the highest total number of deaths at nearly 1.1 million.

Under the microscope are five European countries including the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Italy and Germany which make up around 60% of Europe's total COVID-related deaths.

Topping the list of Coronavirus deaths is the United States which has the highest number of any country in the world at 555,000.

Vaccine

On the vaccine front at least 370.3 million people around the world had received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Sunday.

But as the vaccine campaign continues, the World Health Organization is calling on countries to donate more doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries in order to help them meet vaccination targets.