The world passed 2 million deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, a staggering toll that continues to rise as more contagious variants of the virus emerge.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the United States has had by far the most deaths and incidents of any country in the world, with more than 390,000 deaths. Brazil, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom follow.
China reported its first death since May this week, when a World Health Organization (WHO) team arrived to investigate the origins of the pandemic there after previously raising concerns that Beijing was obstructing the probe.
China has been scrutinized about the level of transparency about the outbreak and the accuracy of its deaths and case numbers.
New coronavirus variants are now leading to an even faster spread of the virus, with strains discovered in the UK and South Africa of particular concern.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Friday that the British variety could be the predominant strain in the US by March.
“The increased portability of the … variant warrants universal and increased adherence to mitigation strategies, including distancing and masking,” the CDC warned.
Vaccines offer some hope of taming the pandemic, but it will take several months to become widespread in the US, and possibly considerably longer in some other countries.
Health officials therefore urge people to keep wearing masks and distance themselves from others.
“It is very important to remind people, both government and individuals, of the responsibilities and measures that we must exercise at least for the rest of this year, because even if vaccines start to protect the most vulnerable, we will not reach every level of population immunity, herd immunity, in 2021, ‘Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist said this week.