In a grim development, the global coronavirus caseload has topped the 200 million mark, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.25 million, though vaccinations reached over 4.26 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, the death toll stood and vaccination tally stood at 200,152,057, 4,255,443 and 4,265,574,682, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 35,331,699 and 614,803, respectively, while India remains in second place with 31,769,132 Covid cases so far.
The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (20,026,533), Russia (6,274,006), France (6,270,961), the UK (5,980,887), Turkey (5,822,487), Argentina (4,975,616), Colombia (4,815,063), Spain (4,544,576), Italy (4,369,964), Iran (4,019,084), Germany (3,786,003) and Indonesia (3,532,567), the CSSE figures showed.
In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 559,607 fatalities. Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (425,757), Mexico (241,936), Peru (196,673), Russia (159,032), the UK (130,300), Italy (128,136), Colombia (121,695), France (112,215), Argentina (106,747) and Indonesia (100,636).
SL records highest Covid deaths
Sri Lanka is to face the worst ever Covid-19 outbreak as the island nation has recorded the highest number of single-day deaths, with hospitals exceeding capacity. The health authorities announced on Wednesday that 82 deaths were reported with 4,727 new cases.
With the new figure, Sri Lanka's overall caseload and death toll stood at 3,18,775 and 4,727, respectively. With the outbreak of the Delta variant and overflow of patients, the Ratnapura General Hospital and Karapitiya Teaching Hospital have declared emergencies.
In a statement, the AMS also warned that it's a matter of days till the demand for oxygen exceeds supply. "The lack of oxygen, or more importantly the lack of an oxygen delivery mechanism to patients' bedsides could cause deaths," the experts warned.
640 doctors in Indonesia die of Covid
At least 640 doctors in Indonesia have died of Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in March last year, said the Indonesian Medical Association on Wednesday. Among the 640 victims, 347 were general practitioners, 284 were specialists and nine were resident doctors, reports said.
It added that the majority of doctors who died of Covid-19 were men totalling 535 or 83.6 per cent, and 105 others or 16.4 per cent were women. The highest number of doctors who died of the disease occurred in July this year, totalling 199 when hospitals were overwhelmed by a surge in cases due to the appearance of more infectious Delta variant, followed by January 2021 (65), December 2020 (59), and June 2021 (52).
The province with the highest number of doctor deaths is East Java (140), followed by Central Java (96), Jakarta (94), and West Java (94). Indonesia has so far reported 3,082,410 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 80,598 deaths.
(With inputs from IANS)
