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The global death toll from COVID-19 has now passed two million.
The benchmark was reached on Friday amid a vaccine rollout so huge but so uneven that in some countries there is real hope of beating the epidemic, while in other parts of the world it seems a distant dream.
The numbing figure was crossed just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The death toll, calculated by Johns Hopkins University, is roughly equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna.
More than 93 million cases of the virus have been confirmed worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Europe is the continent where the health crisis has been the deadliest, with 650,560 deaths to date.
Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 542,410 deaths, while the United States and Canada had 407,090.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for global solidarity in the fight against the pandemic as he marked the “heartbreaking” milestone.
“Unfortunately, the deadly impact of the pandemic has been compounded by the lack of a coordinated global effort,” he said in a video.
In wealthy countries like the US, UK, Israel, Canada, and Germany, millions of citizens have already enjoyed some protection with at least one dose of a vaccine developed at breakthrough speed. and quickly cleared for use.
But elsewhere, vaccination campaigns have barely started. Many experts predict another year of loss and hardship in countries like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil, which together account for around a quarter of deaths globally.
“As a country, as a society, as citizens, we haven’t understood,” lamented Israel Gomez, a Mexico City paramedic who spent months commuting COVID-19 patients in an ambulance. , desperately looking for vacant hospital beds.
“We did not understand that it is not a game, that it really exists.”
Mexico, a country of 130 million people that has suffered severely from the virus, has received only 500,000 doses of a vaccine and has placed barely half of it in the arms of healthcare workers.
In the United States, despite early delays, hundreds of thousands of people roll up their sleeves every day. But the virus has killed an estimated 390,000 people, the highest death toll of any country.
The global COVID-19 vaccine access mechanism – COVAX, a UN-backed project to deliver vaccines to developing regions of the world – ran out of vaccines, money and logistical support.
Our world has taken a decisive step: # COVID-19[FEMININE a maintenant fait deux millions de morts.
Malheureusement, l’impact de la pandémie a été aggravé par l’absence de coordination mondiale.
À la mémoire de ces deux millions d’âmes, le monde doit agir avec une bien plus grande solidarité. pic.twitter.com/wFGZpiLmIj
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) 15 janvier 2021
En conséquence, le scientifique en chef de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé a averti qu’il est hautement improbable que l’immunité collective – qui exigerait au moins 70% de la planète vaccinée – soit atteinte cette année.
Les experts en santé craignent également que si les vaccins ne sont pas distribués assez largement et assez rapidement, cela pourrait donner au virus le temps de muter.
Le Dr Julian Tang, de l’Université de Leicester, a déclaré que ce nombre n’était pas si surprenant compte tenu des circonstances.
“Il s’agit d’un nouveau virus contre lequel personne n’a vraiment d’immunité, et nous traversons la saison hivernale où ces virus respiratoires culminent traditionnellement”, a-t-il déclaré à Al Jazeera.
«Les vaccins contre le coronavirus sont arrivés assez tard, alors on a mis tout ça ensemble, la saison d’hiver, le retard [in] vaccination, interior congestion that accompanies the winter season, this type of peak and mortality… it’s probably not that surprising, ”he added.
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, a global team of researchers led by the WHO arrived Thursday on a politically sensitive mission to investigate the origins of the virus, which is believed to have spread to humans from wild animals.
The Chinese city of 11 million is bustling again, with little sign that it was once the epicenter of the disaster, locked up for 76 days with more than 3,800 dead.
“We are neither fearful nor worried as in the past,” said Qin Qiong, owner of a noodle shop.
“We are now leading a normal life. I take the metro every day to come and work in the store… except for our customers who have to wear masks, everything else is the same.
While the death toll is based on figures provided by government agencies around the world, the actual number of lives lost is believed to be significantly higher.
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