The number of deaths from coronavirus reached the grim milestone of 4 million on Friday, as many countries struggle to obtain enough vaccines to inoculate their populations.
While the number of new cases and deaths has decreased in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, several countries are experiencing vaccine shortages as the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain around the world.
According to a Reuters analysis, it took over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to reach 2 million, while the next 2 million were recorded in just 166 days.
The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia, and Mexico – account for roughly half of all deaths worldwide, while Peru, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, and Gibraltar have the highest death rates when population is taken into account.
Latin American countries are experiencing their worst outbreak since March, with 43 of every 100 infections reported globally, according to a Reuters analysis. The top nine countries with the highest number of deaths per capita in the previous week were all in Latin America.
As the trend toward younger patients continues, hospitals in Bolivia, Chile, and Uruguay are seeing a large number of Covid-19 patients between the ages of 25 and 40. Covid-19 patients make up 80 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) occupants in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Soaring death rates are putting a strain on the capacity of crematoriums in developing countries, and gravediggers in several countries have been forced to expand cemeteries with row after row of new tombs.
On a seven-day average, India and Brazil have the most deaths and are still plagued by cremation issues and a lack of burial space. According to a Reuters analysis, India accounts for one in every three deaths reported globally each day.
Many health experts believe that the official death toll is significantly undercounted globally, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating fatalities to be much higher last month.
The Indian state of Bihar raised its Covid-19 death toll sharply higher last week after discovering thousands of unreported cases, adding to concerns that India’s overall death toll is significantly higher than the official figure.
As poorer countries struggle to immunise their populations due to vaccine shortages, wealthy countries have been urged to contribute more to the pandemic’s control.
“The primary issue in the Americas is vaccine access, not vaccine acceptance,” said Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa Etienne on Wednesday, urging donor countries to send vaccines as soon as possible.
