The World Health Organization (WHO) says COVID-19 has killed “1 million people” this year, despite a wide range of aids, including drugs and vaccines that could stop deaths.
since covid-19 It began to occur about two and a half years ago. More than 6.4 million people worldwide have died from the disease, according to the WHO.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that the 2022 death toll that hit 1 million last week reflects the world ” Still haven’t learned” to live with this virus.
“This week we passed a tragic milestone. There have been 1 million deaths so far this year,” the WHO director said at a press conference.
“We cannot say that We have learned to live with COVID-19. As 1 million people still die this year, despite the two and a half years we’ve been living with the epidemic and have all the tools to prevent these deaths.”
“We urge all governments to increase vaccination efforts for healthcare workers, the elderly and high-risk groups. To achieve the goal of vaccination covering 70% of the world’s population.”
Tedros has previously urged all countries to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the end of June this year, but 136 countries have failed. And of these, 66 countries are vaccinating less than 40% of the population.
The WHO also said there are 10 countries where less than 10% of citizens are vaccinated, most of them facing humanitarian crises.
Derrick Sim of the Gavi Vaccine Coalition (Gavi) said the 1 million death toll by 2022 was too high.
So far, the WHO has received reports of COVID-19 cases. More than 593 million people worldwide are “half” of the total number of cases this year, despite a sharp drop in test rates in many countries.
74% of coronavirus cases worldwide are now caused by BA.5 subspecies of omicron.
Source: ABC News