Year 3: COVID-19 Death Rate Looms over Grim Milestone of 6 Million

The global COVID-19 death toll is fast approaching the six million mark, raising fresh concerns that the pandemic is far from being over even as the world steps into the third year of the new normal.

This comes as countries across the globe are easing restrictions and lifting mask mandates. As per Johns Hopkins University, the COVID-19 mortality figures stand at 5,999,158 as of midday on Monday.

Hong Kong, despite its Zero-COVID policy is reeling under major outbreaks as death rates continue to climb in the country. The far-removed Pacific Islands are also struggling after relaxed rules made them vulnerable to the highly infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

According to Khaleej Times, Tikki Pang, a visiting professor at the medical institute under the National University of Singapore and Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Immunization Coalition, has attributed the rising death rate to the unvaccinated members of the population. He 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," he contended.

However, it remains the fact that the world had likely hit the six million mark earlier, given lackluster testing policies and subpar recordkeeping practices around the globe.

As per Edouard Mathieu, Our World in Data’s Head of Data, an analysis of the global excess death rates confirmed the harsh reality of actual mortality figures being almost four times that of official reports.

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