Baltimore, USA
The number of people worldwide who have died with Covid-19 has passed one million, researchers say, with many regions still reporting surging numbers of new infections.
The tally
by Johns Hopkins University shows that deaths in the US, Brazil and India make
up nearly half that total.
Experts
caution that the true figure is probably much higher.
UN
Secretary-General António Guterres called it a "mind-numbing" figure
and "an agonising milestone".
"Yet
we must never lose sight of each and every individual life," he said in a
video message.
"They
were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and
colleagues. The pain has been multiplied by the savageness of this
disease."
The
development comes nearly 10 months after news of the coronavirus began to
emerge from Wuhan, China.
The
pandemic has since spread to 188 countries with more than 32 million confirmed
cases. Lockdowns and other measures to try to stop the virus spreading have
thrown many economies into recession.
Meanwhile, efforts to develop an effective vaccine
are continuing - although the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that
the death toll could hit two million before one is widely available.
The US has the world's highest death toll with about 205,000 fatalities followed by Brazil on 141,700 and India with 95,500 deaths.
The US
has recorded more than seven million cases - more than a fifth of the world's
total. After the second wave of cases in July, numbers dropped in August but
appear to be on the rise again now.
The
coronavirus has been spreading fast in India, with the country recording about
90,000 cases a day earlier in September.
Confirmed
infections in India have reached six million - the second-highest after the US.
However, given the size of its population, India has seen a relatively low
death rate.
Brazil
has the highest number of deaths in Latin America and has recorded more than
4.7 million cases, the third-highest in the world.
Elsewhere
in the region, newly confirmed infections are also rising quickly in Argentina,
which now has more than 700,000 cases.
Because of differences in how countries record cases and deaths - and the sporadic rates of testing in some regions - the true numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths is believed to be higher than reported, experts say.
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