The milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is the
latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people
are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the
globe.
Remote Pacific islands, whose isolation had protected them
for more than two years, are just now grappling with their first outbreaks and
deaths, fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its
entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to
mainland China’s “zero-COVID” strategy.
As death rates remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and
other Eastern European countries, the region has seen more than 1.5 million
refugees arrive from war-torn Ukraine, a country with poor vaccination coverage
and high rates of cases and deaths.
And despite its wealth and vaccine availability, the United
States is nearing 1 million reported deaths on its own.
Death rates worldwide are still highest among people
unvaccinated 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.
“This is a disease of the unvaccinated — look what is
happening in Hong Kong right now, the health system is being overwhelmed,” said
Pang, the former director of research policy and cooperation with the World
Health Organization. “The large majority of the deaths and the severe cases are
in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”
It took the world seven months to record its first million
deaths from the virus after the pandemic began in early 2020. Four months later
another million people had died, and 1 million have died every three months
since, until the death toll hit 5 million at the end of October. Now it has
reached 6 million — more than the populations of Berlin and Brussels combined,
or the entire state of Maryland.
But despite the enormity of the figure, the world
undoubtedly hit its 6 millionth death some time ago. Poor record-keeping and
testing in many parts of the world has led to an undercount in coronavirus
deaths, in addition to excess deaths related to the pandemic but not from
actual COVID-19 infections, like people who died from preventable causes but could
not receive treatment because hospitals were full.
Edouard Mathieu, head of data for the Our World in Data
portal, said that — when countries’ excess mortality figures are studied — as
many as nearly four times the reported death toll have likely died because of
the pandemic.
An analysis of excess deaths by a team at The Economist
estimates that the number of COVID-19 deaths is between 14.1 million and 23.8
million.
“Confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of
deaths due to COVID, mostly because of limited testing, and challenges in the
attribution of the cause of death,” Mathieu told The Associated Press. “In
some, mostly rich, countries that fraction is high and the official tally can
be considered to be fairly accurate, but in others it is highly
underestimated.”
The United States has the biggest official death toll in the
world, but the numbers have been trending downward over the last month.
Lonnie Bailey lost his 18-year-old brother-in-law, Carlos
Nunez Jr., in September. He was 17 when he got sick in April — the same month
Kentucky opened his age group to vaccinations. The Louisville resident said the
family is still suffering, including Carlos’ younger sibling, who had to be
hospitalized himself and still has lingering symptoms. The aggressive reopening
of the country has been jarring for them to witness.
“For us it is hard to let our guard down; it’s going to take
a while for us to adjust,” Bailey said.
The world has seen more than 445 million confirmed COVID-19
cases, and new weekly cases have been declining recently in all regions except
for the Western Pacific, which includes China, Japan and South Korea, among
others, the World Health Organization reported this week.
Although the overall figures in the Pacific islands seeing
their first outbreaks are small compared to larger countries, they are
significant among their tiny populations and threaten to overwhelm fragile
health care systems.
“Given what we know about COVID ... it’s likely to hit them
for the next year or so at least,” said Katie Greenwood, head of the Red Cross
Pacific delegation.
Tonga reported its first outbreak after the virus arrived
with international aid vessels following the Jan. 15 eruption of a massive
volcano, followed by a tsunami. It now has several hundred cases, but — with
66% of its population fully vaccinated — it has so far reported people
suffering mostly mild symptoms and no deaths.
The Solomon Islands saw the first outbreak in January and
now has thousands of cases and more than 100 deaths. The actual death toll is
likely much higher, with the capital’s hospital overwhelmed and many dying at
home, Greenwood said.
Only 12% of Solomon Islanders are fully vaccinated, though
the outbreak has provided new impetus to the country’s vaccination campaign and
29% now have at least one shot.
Global vaccine disparity continues, with only 6.95% of
people in low-income countries fully vaccinated, compared to more than 73% in
high-income nations, according to Our World in Data.
In a good sign, at the end of last month Africa surpassed
Europe in the number of doses administered daily, but only about 12.5% of its
population has received two shots.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is
still pressing for more vaccines, though it has been a challenge. Some
shipments arrive with little warning for countries’ health systems and others
near the expiration date — forcing doses to be destroyed.
Eastern Europe has been particularly hard hit by the omicron
variant, and with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a new risk has emerged as
hundreds of thousands of people flee to places like Poland on crowded trains.
Health officials there have been offering free vaccinations to all refugees,
but have not been making them test upon arrival or quarantine.
“This is really tragic because great stress has a very
negative effect on natural immunity and increases the risk of infections,” said
Anna Boron-Kaczmarska, a Polish infectious disease specialist. “They are in
very high stress, being afraid for their lives, the lives of their children,
they family members.”
Mexico has reported 300,000 deaths, but with little testing,
a government analysis of death certificates puts the real number closer to
500,000. Still, four weeks of falling infection rates have left health
officials optimistic.
In India, where the world was shocked by images of open-air
pyres of bodies burned as crematoria were overwhelmed, the scars are fading as
the number of new cases and deaths has slowed.
India has recorded more than 500,000 deaths, but experts
believe its true toll is in the millions, primarily from the delta variant.
Migrants from India’s vast hinterland are now returning to its megacities in search
of jobs, and the streets are packed with traffic. Shopping malls have
customers, albeit still masked, while schools and universities are welcoming
students after a months-long gap.
In Britain, infections have fallen since an omicron-driven
surge in December, but remain high. England has now lifted all restrictions,
including mask mandates and the requirement that all who test positive isolate
at home.
With about 250,000 reported deaths, the African continent’s
smaller death toll is thought to stem from underreporting, as well as a
generally younger and less mobile population.
“Africa is a big question mark for me, because it has been
relatively spared from the worst so far, but it could just be a time bomb,”
Pang said, noting its low vaccination rates.
In South Africa, Soweto resident Thoko Dube said she
received news of the deaths of two family members on the same day in January
2021 — a month before the country received its first vaccines.
It has been difficult, but “the family is coping,” she said.
“We have accepted it because it has been happening to other families.” -AP