Global Covid-19 death toll surpasses one million

Funerals for victims, like here in Indonesia, have to be carried out using tight security | Photo: EPA

The number of people who have passed away due to the Covid-19 virus has surpassed one million.

Nearly half of the total number of deaths are from the countries, US, Brazil and India, according to the tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The US has the world’s highest Covid-19 death toll with about 205,000 fatalities, followed by Brazil on 141,700 and India with 95,500 deaths.

While experts warn that the true death toll figure is probably much higher, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the figures “mind-numbing” and “an agonising milestone”.

“Yet we must never lose sight of each and every individual life,” he said in a video message.

“They were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues. The pain has been multiplied by the savageness of this disease.”

After nearly 10 months of discovering about the spread of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, the virus has managed to spread to 188 countries, confirming over 32 million Covid-19 cases and a million Covid-related deaths.

Meanwhile, scientists across the world have been on the verge of developing an effective vaccine for the virus. However, until a vaccine is produced, lockdowns and other protective measures are being taken in hopes of stopping the virus from spreading throughout the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the Covid-19 death toll may reach two million before an effective virus is available to the world.