Global Covid-19 cases passes 90 million as death toll nears 2 million

The number of coronavirus infections worldwide has hit 90 million, about a year since the highly infectious disease began spreading around the globe.

The grim milestone was reached as many countries commence coronavirus vaccination to get as much of its people vaccinated in record time.

COVID-19, the potentially dangerous pneumonia-like disease caused by the coronavirus and said to have emanated from a local Wuhan market to spread to over 200 countries, has claimed more than 1.9 million lives, according to data from worldometer.info.

Many countries including the U.S, Canada, the U.K, Brazil and many other European and American nations have begun vaccination campaigns in a bid to keep the contagion at bay.

But cases are still surging. Even nations that had apparent success in suppressing initial outbreaks are also seeing infections rise again.

Statistics

As of the time of filing this report, there are 90,145,175 confirmed cases across the globe, data from worldometers.info, an online dashboard that tracks the global number of confirmed coronavirus cases showed.

The official number of global cases is now at least five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The five worst-hit countries, the U.S., India, Brazil, Russia and the U.K, have a combined figure of over 48 million infections, more than half of the global total.

There are 23,655,807 active cases as of the time of reporting. Of that number, about 23,547,304 (99.5 per cent) are in mild conditions while only 108,503 (0.5 per cent) cases are in serious or critical conditions.

Death Toll

As of the time of reporting, about 1,936,108 people have succumbed to coronavirus, data from worldometers.info showed. That has exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza.

The United States, which already has the highest number of reported infections in the world, is also the country with the highest death toll with over 381,480.

Some experts said the death toll could be higher as many people suspected of the disease die without being tested.

Countries have continued to report inadequate testing for potential patients of the virus.

Recoveries

More than two-thirds of the over 90 million people infected by COVID-19 across the world have recovered after treatment.

The figure indicates the level of success countries and health professionals have recorded in containing the virus.

As of Sunday morning, over 64 million recoveries have been recorded by worldometer.info.

According to the data, 64,553,260 patients won their battle against the disease.

Although people who recover from a viral infection often develop immunity against the same disease, it remains unclear whether this is the case with COVID-19 infection.

Five worst hit countries

The U.S. remains the worst-hit by the pandemic and this week was the deadliest since the disease began spreading in the country.

After angry rioters and supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the United States tallied its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, more than 4,000 people died from COVID-19 in the United States, the first time the toll has exceeded that milestone, following a record day Wednesday of 3,915 deaths. The pandemic has now claimed more than 363,000 lives in the United States. More than 265,000 new coronavirus cases were reported, the second-highest count in a day according to a Washington Post analysis.

More than 132,000 people are battling COVID-19 in hospital beds, the most the nation’s health-care system has taken on.

The U.S. recorded 264,703 new coronavirus cases on Friday as the confirmed cases nation-wide crossed 22 million.

About 132,370 people are currently hospitalised for coronavirus in the U.S., according to COVID Tracking Project.

India and Brazil have the second and third highest case tallies, recording some 10.4 and 8 million cases respectively.

Russia and the U.K, the fourth and fifth most impacted countries, have over 3.4 million and 3 million cases each.

Infections have been reported in more than 218 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

Lockdowns and other restrictions were reintroduced in some of the worst-affected regions to help bring numbers down.