Global coronavirus deaths pass 1 million mark

The global death toll from the coronavirus rose past 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy and overloaded health systems.

“Our world has reached an agonizing milestone. It’s a mind-numbing figure. Yet we must never lose sight of each and every individual life. They were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues”, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

The rate of fatalities has accelerated, and it took just three months for COVID-19 deaths to double from half a million.

Nearly 5,000 deaths are reported each day on average. Countries across Europe, which accounts for nearly 25% of deaths, are getting hit by new outbreaks. The World Health Organization has warned of a worrying spread in western Europe just weeks away from the winter flu season.

Experts are concerned that the official figures for deaths and cases globally significantly under-represent the real number because of inadequate testing and recording, as well as the possibility of concealment by some countries.