Covid claims that 3 million lives are living as the burden shifts to poorer countries

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The relentless rate of deaths from the global Covid-19 pandemic continues unabated despite global vaccination efforts, and is now increasingly carried by the world’s poorest places.

More than 3 million lives have been lost as a result of the new coronavirus that emerged in 2019, with the last 1 million deaths recorded coming even faster than the first two. It took about 8.5 months from the first fatal accident in China to mark the first million, and another 3.5 months to reach the second million.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the death toll passed 3 million on Saturday, just about three months since crossing the 2 million mark on Jan. 15. The shorter intervals, coupled with the increasing number of new cases worldwide, are a blow to hopes that the end of the pandemic is in sight with the widespread deployment of vaccines.

The real death toll from Covid-19 is likely far above 3 million, due to under- and patchy reporting around the world.

The grim milestone underscores the growing inequality in the fight against the pandemic, which parallels the gap in access to vaccines. While mortality rates in the US and parts of Europe have declined largely thanks to the introduction of vaccines that promise a return to some semblance of a normal life, the developing world – Brazil in particular – must bear a rising death toll.

Only five places are responsible for about half of the last million deaths. The US alone claimed 18% of the world total, still the highest land share.

But the ground is shifting. The death rate is on the rise in less prosperous parts of the world, including those countries that are struggling to access vaccines. Of the last million fatalities, Brazil’s share grew 9.5 percentage points compared to the previous million deaths, followed by Mexico and Peru.

Another million

Five countries are responsible for half of the last million deaths

Source: Johns Hopkins University, data as of 2:00 pm HKT on April 16

Other countries have reduced their share of the last million fatalities, with India, Iran and Argentina the most. Developed countries from Italy and the US to France and Belgium also had a smaller share of the new death toll compared to the previous million.

The findings underscore the need to send immunizations out into the world, public health officials said. About 40% of the Covid-19 vaccines administered have gone to people in 27 affluent countries, which make up only 11% of the world’s population, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Read More: The rate of vaccination is getting 2,400% faster in the richest countries in the world

“There are many countries where people have not undergone any immunization,” said Bali Pulendran, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University in California. “It is not enough to vaccinate everyone in one country. Unless you vaccinate the entire population, you are not going to control the pandemic. “

Differences in immunization threaten the world. The more the coronavirus spreads out of control, the more likely it is to develop dangerous mutations. Some existing vaccines have already been shown to be less effective against new varieties such as those from South Africa. The chance that a mutation will enter a highly vaccinated country and cause another wave of Covid cannot be ruled out.

Wrong way

Covid infections and deaths have both accelerated worldwide

Source: Johns Hopkins University, based on weekly data

“Vaccines give us light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not there yet,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, in a briefing earlier this month. “We all need to continue to protect ourselves and those around us by making the right choices.