One million people have died from COVID-19 so far this year, the World Health Organization has revealed, describing it as a "tragic milestone".
Since the pandemic began more than two and a half years ago, more than 6.4 million people have died from COVID-19 across the globe, according to WHO data.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday the figures reached this week demonstrated the world was not "learning to live" with the virus.
"This week, we crossed the tragic milestone of 1 million reported deaths so far this year," he told a press conference.
"We cannot say we are learning to live with COVID-19 when 1 million people have died with COVID-19 this year alone, when we are two and a half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths.
"We ask all governments to strengthen their efforts to vaccinate all health workers, older people and others at the highest risk, on the way to 70 per cent vaccine coverage for the whole population."
Mr Tedros had wanted all countries to have vaccinated 70 per cent of their populations by the end of June, but 136 countries failed to reach the target, of which 66 still had coverage below 40 per cent.
"It is pleasing to see that some countries with the lowest vaccination rates are now making up ground, especially in Africa," Mr Tedros said.
He said only 10 countries had less than 10 per cent coverage, most of which were facing humanitarian emergencies.
Tedros urges countries to step up fight against COVID-19
Mr Tedros said "much more needs to be done" to vaccinate, test and limit transmissions.
"One-third of the world's population remains unvaccinated, including two-thirds of health workers and three-quarters of older adults in low-income countries," he said.
"All countries at all income levels must do more to vaccinate those most at risk, to ensure access to life-saving therapeutics, to continue testing and sequencing, and to set tailored, proportionate policies to limit transmission and save lives."
Derrick Sim of the Gavi vaccine alliance said 1 million deaths in 2022 was 1 million too many.
"Behind each statistic is a very real human tragedy, and as … the world deals with competing priorities, we cannot become numb to the toll the pandemic is having on individuals, families, and communities," he said.
More than 593 million cases have now been reported to the UN health agency. Despite testing rates having dropped sharply in many countries, about half of those cases were reported this year.
The Omicron variant accounted for 99 per cent of virus samples collected in the past 30 days that had been sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID global science initiative.
Of these, the BA.5 group of Omicron sub-variants remain globally dominant at 74 per cent.
"There is increasing diversity within BA.5-descendent lineages, with additional mutations in the spike and non-spike regions," the WHO said.
AFP
