Global Covid-19 fatalities top 4 million

US, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico account for 50% of the total death toll

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed a grim milestone of 4 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as many countries struggle to procure enough vaccines to inoculate their populations.

Countries in Latin America are facing their worst outbreak since March (AFP)

While the number of new cases and deaths have abated in countries like the US and Britain, several nations have vaccine shortages as the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain around the world.

It took over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to hit 2 million, while the next 2 million were recorded in just 166 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

The top five countries by total number of deaths - the US, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico– represent about 50% of all deaths in the world, while Peru, Hungary, Bosnia, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar have the highest death rates when adjusted for population.

Countries in Latin America are facing their worst outbreak since March, with 43 of every 100 infections in the world being reported in the region, according to a Reuters analysis.

The top nine countries reporting the most deaths per capita over the last week were all in Latin America. Hospitals in Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay are largely seeing Covid-19 patients between the ages of 25 and 40 as the trend towards younger patients continued. In Brazil’s Sao Paulo, 80% of intensive care unit occupants are Covid-19 patients.

India and Brazil are the countries reporting the most deaths each day on a seven-day average and are still troubled with cremation woes and lack of burial space. India accounts for one in every three deaths reported worldwide each day, according to a Reuters analysis.

Delta variant expected to be dominant in US: CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky says she expects the delta variant, first detected in India, will become the dominant coronavirus strain in the US.

“As worrisome as this delta strain is with regard to its hyper transmissibility, our vaccines work,” Walensky told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday. Get vaccinated and “you’ll be protected against this delta variant”, she urged Americans.

The White House said President Joe Biden was later on Friday going to announce that 300 million Covid-19 shots have been administered in the 150 days since he took office on January 20. But as Biden marks a new milestone, he is in danger of failing to meet another: his target to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by July 4.

In Russia, new Covid cases hit a pandemic high in Moscow on Friday, tripling in just weeks due to the Delta variant. A total of 9,056 new cases were recorded in the megapolis of 12 million in the past 24 hours, with Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying that the highly infectious Delta variant represented almost 90% of new cases