- The Covid-19 global death toll marked yet another a grim milestone, taking more than 1 million lives.
- CNBC Africa has pulled together a package of stories looking back at how the coronavirus has changed society over the last nine months.
- Roughly half of the world’s total Covid-19 fatalities have been reported in only four countries — the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.
The coronavirus has killed at least 1 million people across the globe, a nightmarish milestone in the world’s fight against the virus that emerged from Wuhan, China, late last year, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Roughly half of the world’s total Covid-19 fatalities have been reported in only four countries — the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Hopkins data.
The U.S. reached a death toll above 200,000 people last week, more than any other country on the planet. Declared a pandemic over six months ago, the coronavirus has swept through nearly every nation and has infected more than 33 million people along the way, according to Johns Hopkins. It’s shuttered businesses and schools, wreaking havoc on global economies and leaving millions unemployed.
“One million is a terrible number, and I think we need to reflect on that before we start considering a second million,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, told reporters on Friday.
The new coronavirus was wreaking havoc in Asia and European nations, and a United Nations agency said in April that, even with social-distancing measures, the virus could kill 300,000 Africans this year.
In May the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 190,000 people on the continent could die if containment measures failed. Yet as the world marks 1 million COVID-19 deaths, Africa is doing much better than expected, with a lower percentage of deaths than other continents.
CNBC Africa has compiled a package of stories that will run Monday and Tuesday looking back at how the coronavirus pandemic has changed health care, the economy and society itself since its discovery less than nine months ago.
Please check back here for links to these coming stories and more as they are published:
