Six million people have now died of coronavirus since the pandemic began, new figures have shown.
The global milestone has been recorded by Johns Hopkins University, suggesting the pandemic is far from over despite restrictions being eased in the UK following a surge in Omicron cases over the winter period towards the end of last year.
The death rates worldwide are still highest among people who are 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 Immunisation Coalition.
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He cited Hong Kong as an example of a country still struggling with the virus as it is currently seeing deaths soar and is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to mainland China’s “zero-COVID” strategy.
Mr Pang, who is also the former director of research policy and cooperation with the World Health Organisation, said: “This is a disease of the unvaccinated – look what is happening in Hong Kong right now, the health system is being overwhelmed.
“The large majority of the deaths and the severe cases are in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”
Death rates also remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other Eastern European countries.
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And despite its wealth and vaccine availability, the US is nearing one million reported deaths on its own.
The world recorded its first million deaths from the virus seven months after the pandemic began in early 2020.
Four months later another million people had died, and one million have died every three months since, until the death toll hit five million at the end of October.
