More than five million people across the globe have died after being infected with Covid-19, according to the latest tally by the John Hopkins University on Monday.
The milestone comes as several countries scramble to curb the spread of the highly contagious Covid-19 Delta variant.
While it took over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to hit 2.5 million when the pandemic first started, the next 2.5 million deaths were recorded over the next eight months.
More than half of the reported Covid-19 deaths were in the United States, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and India combined.
The US has recorded some 46 million infections and nearly 750,000 Covid related deaths, while Russia is currently battling an upsurge in cases.
South America accounted for 21% of all global deaths, the highest percentage as a region with Brazil the hardest-hit in the continent.
India on the other hand has been recording a decline in deaths over the last few months, mainly due to the country’s vaccination campaign.
Vaccines are currently considered the main way to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with nearly 7 million doses administered worldwide.
However, wide disparities in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries continue to hamper vaccination rollouts globally.
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