App
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, March 7, 2022, p. fifteen
Bangkok. The official global death toll from Covid-19 is poised to exceed 6 million, underscoring that the pandemic, now in its third year, is far from over.
The milestone is a tragic reminder of its unforgiving nature, even as people are removing their masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening. According to Johns Hopkins University, 5 million 996 thousand 882 deaths were reported on Sunday morning and it was expected that in the next few hours it would exceed the 6 million mark. The contagions amounted yesterday to 445 million 580 thousand 93.
The death toll exceeds the populations of Berlin and Brussels combined.
Remote Pacific islands, whose isolation had protected them for more than two years, are now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fueled by the contagious omicron variant.
Hong Kong, which is experiencing a precipitous rise in deaths, will test its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month.
Despite its wealth and availability of vaccines, the United States is approaching one million deaths.
India has recorded more than 500,000 deaths, but experts believe the true number is in the millions, mainly from the delta variant.
Death rates around the world remain higher among people who are not vaccinated against the virus, said Tikki Pang, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s medical school and co-chair of the Asia Pacific Immunization Coalition. .
Despite the large figure, without a doubt, death number 6 million was reached on the planet some time ago.
Poor record-keeping and testing in many parts of the world have led to undercounting of coronavirus infections and deaths, as well as excess deaths related to the pandemic but not from Covid-19 infections, such as people who they perished from preventable causes but were unable to receive treatment because hospitals were full.
