Worldwide death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 2 million during vaccine rollout

The global death toll from COVID-19 was over 2 million on Friday, as vaccines developed at breakneck speed are being rolled out around the world in an all-out campaign to overcome the threat.

The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The number of deaths, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is roughly equal to the number of residents of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It roughly corresponds to the population of the Cleveland metropolitan area or the entire state of Nebraska.

While the census is based on figures provided by government agencies around the world, the actual toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part due to inadequate testing and the many fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes, especially in the early part of the outbreak.

It took eight months for 1 million people to die. It took less than four months to reach the next million.

“Behind this awful number are names and faces – the smile that will now be just a memory, the chair that is forever empty at the dining table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He said the toll “has been exacerbated by the lack of a coordinated global effort.”

“Science has succeeded, but solidarity has failed,” he said.

In wealthy countries, including the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, millions of citizens have already received some measure of protection with at least one dose of vaccine that has been developed at revolutionary speed and quickly approved for use.

But elsewhere, immunization drives have barely taken off. Many experts predict another year of loss and deprivation in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil, which together account for about a quarter of the world’s deaths.