Global COVID-19 deaths hit 4 million amid rush to vaccinate
The global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 4 million Wednesday as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant.
The tally of lives lost over the past year and a half, as compiled from official sources by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the number of people killed in battle in all of the world's wars since 1982, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
The toll is three times the number of people killed in traffic accidents around the globe every year. It is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is equivalent to more than half of Hong Kong or close to 50% of New York City.
Even then, it is widely believed to be an undercount because of overlooked cases or deliberate concealment.
With the advent of the vaccine, deaths per day have plummeted to around 7,900, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January.
But in recent weeks, the mutant delta version of the virus first identified in India has set off alarms around the world, spreading rapidly even in vaccination success stories like the U.S., Britain and Israel.
FILE - In this July 2, 2021, file photo, a woman breaks down as she prays before the cremation of a relative who died of COVID-19 in Gauhati, India. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)
Britain, in fact, recorded a one-day total this week of more than 30,000 new infections for the first time since January, even as the government prepares to lift all remaining lockdown restrictions in England later this month.
Other countries have reimposed preventive measures, and authorities are rushing to step up the campaign to dispense shots.
At the same time, the disaster has exposed the gap between the haves and the have-nots, with vaccination drives barely getting started in Africa and other desperately poor corners of the world because of extreme shortages of shots.
The U.S. and other wealthy countries have agreed to share at least 1 billion doses with struggling countries.
The U.S. has the world's highest reported death toll, at over 600,000, or nearly 1 in 7 deaths, followed by Brazil at more than 520,000, though the real numbers are believed to be much higher in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government has long downplayed the virus.
The variants, uneven access to vaccines and the relaxation of precautions in wealthier countries are "a toxic combination that is very dangerous," warned Ann Lindstrand, a top immunization official at the World Health Organization.
Instead of treating the crisis as a "me-and-myself-and-my-country" problem, she said, "we need to get serious that this is a worldwide problem that needs worldwide solutions."
FILE - In this May 13, 2021, file photo, Heather Haworth, left, holds the hand of her 12-year-old son Jeremy as he receives the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from medical assistant Gloria Urgell at Providence Edwards Lifesciences vaccination site in Santa Ana, Calif. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - In this June 25, 2021, file photo, medical staff transport a COVID-19 patient at the Honorio Delgado Hospital in Arequipa, Peru. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)
FILE - In this June 18, 2021, file photo, cemetery workers carry the coffin that contains the remains of 89-year-old Irodina Pinto Ribeiro, who died from COVID-19 related complications, at the Inhauma cemetery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)
FILE - In this March 12, 2021, file photo, a hospital worker receives one of the country's first coronavirus vaccinations, using the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and provided through the global COVAX initiative, at Yaba Mainland hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)
FILE - In this April 24, 2021, file photo, exhausted workers, who bring dead bodies for cremation, sit on the rear step of an ambulance inside a crematorium, in New Delhi, India. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
FILE - In this June 24, 2021, file photo, bodies of people who died of symptoms related to COVID-19 lie at Honorio Delgado Hospital in Arequipa, Peru. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)
FILE - In this April 27, 2021, file photo, nurses from the nearby St Thomas' hospital sit atop the National Covid Memorial Wall in London. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - In this July 1, 2021, file photo, a worker in personal protective equipment sanitizes a street in the wake of a spike in the number of positive coronavirus cases, in downtown Guatemala City. The global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 4 million as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
