During the pandemic, the death toll exceeds 6 million infections

The milestone is a tragic reminder of the persistent nature of the pandemic, as people ditched masks, resumed travel and reopened businesses around the world.

The death toll from COVID-19 reached 6 million on Monday, underscoring that the pandemic, now in its third year, is far from over.

According to the count prepared by Johns Hopkins University, the last million deaths were recorded in the last four months.

This is a slightly lower rate than the previous million deaths, but it makes it clear that many countries continue to suffer from this virus. 

Remote Pacific islands long protected from the coronavirus by their isolation are now facing their first outbreaks and deaths, fueled by the contagious omicron variant.Hong Kong, where deaths have soared, will test all of its 7.5 million people three times this month in an effort to stick to China’s zero-tolerance approach to the disease.

Death rates remained high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other countries in eastern Europe, where more than 1.5 million refugees fled war in Ukraine, a country with low vaccination coverage and high numbers of cases. and deaths.The highest official death toll in the world has been the United States reporting nearly one million deaths. 

Despite the enormity of the figure of six million deaths, more than the populations of Berlin and Brussels combined, or more than all of Costa Rica, experts say that the real number is probably much higher.

Due to poor records and testing in many parts of the world, many deaths have not been attributed to COVID-19.

In addition, there is the excess mortality associated with the pandemic even if it is not due specifically to coronavirus infections, such as people who died of preventable causes but did not receive treatment because hospitals were full.An analysis of excess mortality by a team at The Economist estimates the number of deaths from COVID-19 to be between 14 million and 23.5 million people.In total, some 450 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide