The number of total recorded fatalities worldwide from the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has achieved the ‘devastating’ milestone of five million dead, a little less than two years after the pandemic took the world by storm.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 7000 people around the globe are succumbing to the virus daily. However, the accurate figure is easily double that. The Economist advocates that the toll is probably nearer to 16.7 million people dead, especially when considering those who died from the disease without knowing what it was and those who could not receive treatment for other illnesses due to hospitals being were overcrowded with COVID-19 patients. Pakistan alone lost 28,466 people to the deadly disease, again the actual number probably being double than stated.
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, dubbed it a “devastating milestone” and a “clear warning” that “we cannot let our guard down”.