Global death toll from COVID-19 tops 2M amid vaccine rollout
Posted January 15, 2021 6:00 am
The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 2 million Friday as vaccines developed at breakneck speed are being rolled out around the world in an all-out campaign to vanquish the threat.
The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The number of dead, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna.
While the count is based on figures supplied by government agencies around the world, the real toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of inadequate testing and the many fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes, especially early in the outbreak.
It took eight months to hit 1 million dead. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million.
'œBehind this terrible number are names and faces - the smile that will now only be a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He said the toll 'œhas been made worse by the absence of a global coordinated effort.'ť
'œScience has succeeded, but solidarity has failed," he said.
A patient with coronavirus breathes wearing an oxygen mask in an intensive care unit at the hospital in Stryi, western Ukraine, on Tuesday Sep. 29 2020. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It took eight months to hit 1 million lives lost. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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Corazona Pena's body lies wrapped in plastic by a Peruvian COVID-19 specialized government team in Pucallpa, in Peru's Ucayali region, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. It took eight months to hit 1 million lives lost. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
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Residents, some wearing masks, ride on a ferry in Wuhan on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It took eight months to hit 1 million lives lost. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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A patient infected with COVID-19 is treated in one of the intensive care units (ICU) at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. Spain has become the first western Europe to accumulate more than 1 million confirmed infections as the country of 47 million inhabitants struggles to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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Police clash with protesters in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Clashes have erupted in a central Barcelona square between anti-riot police and hundreds who had gathered to protest the mandatory closure of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the latest effort to rein in on coronavirus outbreaks. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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Nurse Ginevra Fattori gets ready before entering the sub-intensive care unit of the San Filippo Neri hospital in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Cemetery workers carry the remains of 89-year-old Abilio Ribeiro, who died of the new coronavirus, to bury at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Manaus declared on Jan. 5 a 180-day state of emergency due to a surge of new cases of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)
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Wearing masks and plastic gloves amid the spread of the new coronavirus, girls raise her hands during class in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Tens of thousands of school children returned to class Monday in Havana for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic prompted authorities to shut the island down in April. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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A woman wearing a face mask asks for alms as people rush to catch the train outside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj train terminus in Mumbai, India, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It took eight months to hit 1 million lives lost. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
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A nurse rests her knees on the floor as she looks at a computer screen during the day shift at the COVID-19 ICU of the La Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
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A medic works with corona patients in a hospital in Idlib, Syria, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. At one of two coronavirus hospitals in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, overwhelmed medical staff tend to patients drifting in and out of consciousness. As confirmed case numbers rise to as many as 500 a day, so does the demand for beds in the intensive care ward (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
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Medical workers and patients are seen in the treatment hall of a temporary hospital for coronavirus patients in the Krylatskoye Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. The resurgence of the outbreak has swept the Russia since September, with the number of daily new cases spiking from roughly 5,000 in early September to over 22,000 this week. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
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Head nurse Mirco Perruzza, right, and nurse Edoardo Lucci help a patient with coronavirus to wear a CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) helmet in the ICU of the ICC Casalpalocco COVID-19 spoke hospital in Rome, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
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Vivian Zayas holds onto the walker once belonging to her recently deceased mother Ana Martinez while her family prays before Thanksgiving dinner, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, in Deer Park, N.Y. The global death toll from COVID-19 has topped 2 million. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It took eight months to hit 1 million lives lost. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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Ultra-orthodox Jewish men gather around the body of Rabbi Aharon David Hadash, the spiritual leader of the Mir Yeshiva, a prominent religious seminary, during his funeral in Jerusalem, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. The mass ceremony took place despite coronavirus restrictions limiting the size of funerals. Hadash, who was 90 was hospitalized two months ago after he tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
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A Sri Lankan Christian family grieves as municipal cemetery workers carry the body of their family member who died of COVID-19 for cremation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
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