Coronavirus global death toll hits ONE MILLION people less than 10 months after first case reported in China
ONE million people have died around the world as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest figures.
The grim milestone comes amid a second wave of Covid-19 in Europe with the UK announcing a further 17 deaths today.
In total, the killer respiratory disease has claimed the lives of 1,000,207, according to Worldometer which compiles data from sources including governments.
The new coronavirus emerged late-last year in Wuhan China, and quickly spread around the globe killing 500,000 in its first six months.
It has infected more than 32 million people in 210 countries and territories although that number is feared to be much higher due to limited testing programmes and a lack of transparency from non-democratic nations.
The United States, which has a population of 331 million, is the worst-hit country with 209,291 deaths from a total of 7.3m cases.
President Donald Trump, who has seen the US economy ravaged by the disease and the subsequent lockdown, has continually attacked China and the World Health Organisation over their handling of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Trump blamed Beijing for unleashing the virus upon the world and said the UN must hold the nation “accountable”.
He said: “The Chinese government, and the World Health Organization, which is virtually controlled by China, falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
“Later, they falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease.”
Brazil has the second highest death toll with 141,503 people passing away as a result of the disease.
The country’s president Jair Bolsanaro was criticised for calling the virus “a little flu” before he contracted the bug himself in July and was forced to self-isolate for three weeks.
As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the Rio Carnival – which was scheduled for February – has been postponed for the first time in over 100 years.
India, which has a population of 1.3bn, is next on the list with a death toll of 95,151 followed closely by Mexico which has seen 76,243 pass away.
Former Covid-ground zero China, amid accusations of not disclosing the true extent of their pandemic, still has an official death toll of just 4,634 – despite having a population of nearly 1.4bn.
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The UK has been the hardest-hit in Europe with government scientists Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty recently painting a bleak picture with cases doubling every seven days.
But according to the latest data, the virus is more likely to be doubling between every nine and 14 days – which means a worst case scenario could see 32,000-daily cases by October 13.
The R number across the UK is between 1.2 and 1.5 and the Covid-19 epidemic is growing, scientists have said.
Britain’s coronavirus death toll is currently 41,988 with more than 434,000 infections since the pandemic began.
