The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 6 million

More than 6 million people around the world have died from COVID-19 – the US alone is nearing 1,000,000 deaths, sobering data shows.

As of Monday morning, around 6,000,864 people have died from the virus worldwide. based on data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States, where 65% of people are fully vaccinated, has reported 958,621 deaths and more than 79 million confirmed cases, according to the data.

But as hospitalizations and deaths continue to slow significantly, a growing number of US states are dropping mask and vaccination mandates. including in public classrooms in New York City starting on Monday.

Face mask rules are also set to be relaxed in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont this week.

The first million deaths from the pandemic – now in its third year – occurred in just seven months in 2020.

The number of global deaths also likely surpassed 6 million some time ago due to a lack of people with shabby records in some parts of the world.

An analysis by a team from The Economist It is estimated that up to 23.8 million people have died from the virus worldwide.

“Confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of deaths due to COVID, mainly due to limited testing and challenges in assigning the cause of death,” Edouard Mathieu, head of data for Our world in data, said the Associated Press. “In some, mostly rich countries, this proportion is high and the official count can be considered fairly accurate, but in others it is grossly underestimated.”

The US has the highest official death toll in the world, followed by Brazil (652,216), India (515,036) and Russia (348,467). show data. More than 445 million cases have been confirmed worldwide, but weekly numbers have fallen in every region except the western Pacific, including China, Japan and South Korea, according to the World Health Organization.

Vaccine inequality remains a problem, with only 6.95% of people in poorer countries being fully vaccinated – compared to more than 73% in higher-income regions, according to figures from Our World in Data.

Meanwhile, death rates remain highest among the unvaccinated, researchers said.

“This is a disease of the unvaccinated — look what’s happening in Hong Kong right now, the healthcare system is overwhelmed,” Tikki Pang, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s medical school, told the Associated Press.

“The vast majority of deaths and severe cases are in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”

With postal wires