‘An agonizing milestone’: COVID-19 deaths hit 1 million globally
‘An agonizing milestone’: COVID-19 deaths hit 1 million globally
By Ysh Cabana
The Philippine Reporter
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 35 million with more than one million deaths and 24.7 million recoveries globally. The one-million milestone was hit on September 28, according to the COVID case tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
The head of the emergencies program at the the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, said the best estimates indicate that roughly one in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus
Data shows that the most of the cases have been reported in the 25-39 age group, with approximately 50 percent of cases in the 25-64 age group. However, according to the WHO, the percentage of deaths increases with age, and approximately 75 percent of deaths are in those aged 65 years and above. But Dr. Ryan said that “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.”
As many regions had initial success in suppressing the outbreaks, some countries continue to see resurgence of the virus.
The U.S. has recorded more than 210,000 coronavirus-related fatalities—the world’s highest official death toll. India has been leading in fatalities daily with over 1,000 dead among the six million people confirmed to be infected, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating.
With the most number of new cases in Asia compared to neighboring countries, the Philippines has driven record high of more than 600 deaths in September, with about 18,000 new cases in the past week. While official figures from the country’s Department of Health has reported a total number of 5,500 fatalities come October.
Canada has also been showing a large increase in new cases and new death compared with the previous week, at 43 percent and 208 percent respectively.
Ontario, which has averaged 630 new cases daily in the past week, has taken a far less stringent path to dealing with its second wave of COVID-19. Premier Doug Ford has appeared to sow confusion over the province’s official guidance on the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend following recommendations from Ontario’s Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe as well as Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa to forgo the traditional big family dinners on the holiday.
De Villa is scheduled for an October 9 virtual briefing with the Toronto Filipino community as of press time.
Ontario has averaged 40,000 tests a day, which, while high compared to past months, is still below the goal of 50,000 tests set in the spring. The province has moved to an appointment-only system, which could cause case numbers to drop. But experts had warned the government that it would need to be averaging around 100,000 tests per day in the autumn, reported the Toronto Star.
Governments across the world have been forced to limit public movement and close businesses and venues for nine months since the coronavirus began to emerge from Wuhan and the first death outside of China was reported in the Philippines. This has had a devastating impact on the global economy.
Damage to the world’s major economies is four times worse than the 2009 global financial crisis, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
There are about 240 potential vaccines in early development, with 40 in clinical trials and nine in the final stage of testing on thousands of people. A vaccine against Covid-19 may be ready by the end of 2020, said the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, without elaborating.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s toll of one million dead in such a limited time rivals some of the gravest threats to public health easily outstripping the outbreaks of Ebola (11,000 dead) and Swine flu (500,000 dead) in the 2010s, and roughly on par with the Asian Flu outbreak of the 1950s.
If current trends continue, researchers estimate that by yearend the total number of deaths will reach 2.5 million. But, under different conditions, the situation could worsen. If only every country adopts universal mask-wearing could figures be cut to 1.8 million by January 2021.
“An agonizing milestone,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“Yet we must never lose sight of each and every individual life,” he said in a video message.
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