Five million people have died worldwide from Covid-19 since the disease first emerged in China nearly two years ago. That is according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
Monday’s milestone, nearly four months after four million deaths were registered, came even as mortality rates slow thanks to a global vaccine rollout that has seen billions of people injected.
While the number of daily deaths worldwide fell below 8,000 for the first time in almost a year in early October, there remain blackspots globally.
“The total number of cases and deaths of COVID-19 is increasing for the first time in two months, due to the current increase in the epidemic in Europe,” said head of World Health Organisation Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday.
In the 52 countries and territories that form the WHO’s European region, the mounting death toll is mainly coming from the east.
The WHO has estimated that the pandemic’s real toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
“This figure seems more credible to me,” Pasteur Institute epidemiologist Professor Arnaud Fontanet.
