Global COVID-19 death toll hits 4 million

The death toll of COVID-19 has hit 4 million worldwide. It took one year and seven months to reach the mark since the coronavirus was first found in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

"The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic. We have just passed the tragic milestone of four million recorded COVID-19 deaths," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva. He accused countries with high vaccination coverage of relaxing as though the pandemic is already over.

In the U.K., the daily COVID-19 infection count reached 32,548 on Thursday, surpassing the ceiling of 30k for the first time in five months and a half. In fact, the UK saw its coronavirus tally peaking out in mid-January during the second wave of massive contagion. With 67% and 50% of the entire populations have respectively finished one-dose and two-dose regimens, the UK boasts one of the highest vaccination levels in the world, but the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading among the young who have yet to get the jab. The British government, which has imposed a lax regulation despite the spread, is planning to lift the rules on mandatory mask-wearing, gathering bans, and social distancing, starting on July 19.

The Delta variant is also becoming dominant in the U.S. and Germany. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that Delta infections account for 51.7% of the new infection cases over the two weeks between June 20 and July 3, surging from 30.4% from the previous fortnight (June 6 – June 19). In Germany, the Delta variant took up 59% among the new patients of the coronavirus in late June. The coronavirus is on the rise again in Germany with the daily tally jumping from around 300 in late June to 986 on Wednesday.


Jong-Yeob JO jjj@donga.com