Coronavirus toll crosses six million mark globally

The coronavirus toll across the globe crossed the six-million mark on Monday, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

As of Tuesday, the toll stood at 60,07,367 since the pandemic broke out in December 2019. So far, 44,78,94,535 cases have also been reported globally.

The first million deaths were recorded seven months into the pandemic, reported The Associated Press. It then took four months to record another million fatalities. Since then, one million casualties were recorded every three months till the toll hit the 5 million mark in October. It then took five months to reach 6 million.

Tikki Pang, the former director of research policy and cooperation at the World Health Organization, said that the death rates were the highest among the unvaccinated persons.

“This is a disease of the unvaccinated – look what is happening in Hong Kong right now, the health system is being overwhelmed,” said Pang. “The large majority of the deaths and the severe cases are in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”

Meanwhile, experts believe that the fatality count around the world could actually be higher. They attribute the low toll to poor record-keeping and testing in several parts of the world and that many had died from preventable causes because they could not receive treatment as hospitals were overwhelmed due to the pandemic.

An analysis of excess deaths by The Economist estimated that the fatality count is between 14.1 million and 23.8 million (1.41 crore and 2.38 crore).

Excess deaths is the divergence between all-cause deaths reported this year and in normal years. While all excess deaths are not likely to be due to Covid-19, a majority of them are expected to be linked to the coronavirus disease during the pandemic.

Edouard Mathieu, head of data for the Our World in Data portal, said that considering the excess deaths in several countries, the toll could be nearly four times than the reported deaths.

“Confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of deaths due to Covid-19, mostly because of limited testing, and challenges in the attribution of the cause of death,” Mathieu told The Associated Press. “In some, mostly rich, countries that fraction is high and the official tally can be considered to be fairly accurate, but in others it is highly underestimated.”

India logs 3,993 new cases

India on Tuesday recorded logged 3,993 new coronavirus infections, taking the infection count in the country to 4,29,71,308. This is the lowest single-day tally in 662 days, reported PTI.

Tuesday’s infection count is 369 less than Monday’s tally of 4,362.

With 108 fatalities, the toll climbed to 5,15,210.

The active case tally fell down to 49,948. As many as 4,24,06,150 patients have recovered from the infection so far.

The daily positivity rate also dropped to 0.46% from Monday’s 0.71%, the health ministry said in a update.