The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 disease globally exceeded 5 million on Friday, according to a count by journalists from the Reuters news agency, in the context in which people not vaccinated against the new coronavirus are particularly exposed to the Delta variant, which it is much more virulent.
This variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus exposed the disparities that exist between vaccination rates in rich and poor countries, as well as the hesitations regarding vaccination found among the populations of some western states.
More than half of the deaths worldwide, reported within seven days, were recorded in the United States, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and India.
While the overall death toll associated with COVID-19 took just over a year to exceed the 2.5 million mark, the next 2.5 million deaths were recorded in less than eight months., according to analysts at Reuters.
On average, 8,000 deaths were reported worldwide each day over the past week, which means about five deaths per minute. However, the overall death rate associated with COVID-19 has slowed in recent weeks.
The international community has increasingly focused in recent days on providing COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries, as many of their inhabitants have not yet received their first dose, and rich nations have already begun administering over-the-counter doses.
More than half of the global population has not yet received the first dose of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data website, writes Agerpres.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced this week that its COVAX program has distributed vaccine doses for the first time only to countries with the lowest vaccine coverage rates.
Coordinated by the WHO, the COVAX program has allocated doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 140 beneficiary countries in relation to their populations since January.
The United States, which is facing disinformation campaigns aimed at vaccination, due to which a third of the American population avoids getting vaccinated, exceeded the threshold of 700,000 associated deaths COVID-19 on Friday, recording the highest death toll among all countries in the world.
The number of infections and hospitalizations in the United States is declining, but health officials fear a possible resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the arrival of the cold season, when most activities will take place indoors.
Russia reported 887 COVID-19-related deaths within 24 hours on Fridaye, thus recording the highest daily death toll since the beginning of the pandemic, for the fourth day in a row. Only 33% of the population eligible for vaccination in Russia was inoculated with the first dose of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine.
In the regional ranking, South America had the highest balance in the world, with 21% of all deaths worldwide. North and Eastern Europe ranked next, with 14% of all deaths reported worldwide, according to Reuters analysts.
India, the first country to be devastated by the Delta variant, fell from an average of 4,000 daily deaths to less than 300 daily deaths, in the context of the intensification of its national vaccination campaign.
Currently, 47% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and about 7.9 million doses have been given each day over the past week, according to data published by the website Our World in Data.
Delta is now the dominant global option and has been reported in 187 of the 194 member countries of the World Health Organization.
Editor : A.P.
