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A30 world news
Diasabra 16 Januari 2021

This is not a game': Global virus death toll hits 2 million

than expected. France, with
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, where the second-largest economy
the scourge was discovered in Europe and more than
in late 2019, a global team 69,000 known virus deaths,
of researchers led by WHO will need years, not months,
arrived Thursday on a po- to vaccinate its 53 mil-
litically sensitive mission to lion adults unless it sharply
investigate the origins of the speeds up its rollout, ham-
virus, which is believed to pered by shortages, red tape
have spread to humans from and considerable suspicion of
wild animals. the vaccines.

The Chinese city of 11 mil- Still, in places like Poissy, a
lion people is bustling again, blue-collar town west of Par-
with few signs it was once the is, the first shots of the Pfizer
epicenter of the catastrophe, formula were met with relief
locked down for 76 days, and a sense that there is light
with over 3,800 dead. at the end of the pandemic
tunnel.
“We are not fearful or wor-
ried as we were in the past,” “We have been living inside
said Qin Qiong, a noodle for nearly a year. It’s not a
shop owner. “We now live a life,” said Maurice Lachkar, a
normal life. I take the subway retired 78-year-old acupunc-
every day to come to work in turist who was put on the
the shop. ... Except for our priority list for vaccination
customers, who have to wear because of his diabetes and
(AP) — The global death are predicting another year systems, crumbling transpor- masks, everything else is the his age. “If I catch the virus I
toll from COVID-19 of loss and hardship in places tation networks, entrenched same.” am done.”
topped 2 million Friday, like Iran, India, Mexico and corruption and a lack of re-
crossing the threshold Brazil, which together ac- liable electricity to keep vac- It took eight months to hit Maurice and his wife, Nicole,
amid a vaccine rollout so count for about a quarter of cines cold enough. 1 million dead but less than who also got vaccinated, said
immense but so uneven the world's deaths. four months after that to they might even allow them-
that in some countries Also, the majority of the reach the next million. selves hugs with their two
there is real hope of van- “As a country, as a society, world’s COVID-19 vac- children and four grandchil-
quishing the outbreak, as citizens we haven’t un- cine doses have already While the death toll is based dren, whom they have seen
while in other, less-devel- derstood,” lamented Israel been snapped up by wealthy on figures supplied by gov- from a socially safe distance
oped parts of the world, it Gomez, a Mexico City para- countries. COVAX, a U.N.- ernment agencies around the only once or twice since the
seems a far-off dream. medic who spent months backed project to supply world, the real number of pandemic hit.
shuttling COVID-19 patients shots to developing parts of lives lost to is believed to be
The numbing figure was around by ambulance, des- the world, has found itself significantly higher, in part “It is going to be liberating,”
reached just over a year after perately looking for vacant short of vaccine, money and because of inadequate testing he said.
the coronavirus was first de- hospital beds. “We have not logistical help. and the many fatalities inac-
tected in the Chinese city of understood that this is not a curately attributed to other Throughout the developing
Wuhan. The number of dead, game, that this really exists.” As a result, the World Health causes, especially early in the world, the images are strik-
compiled by Johns Hopkins Organization’s chief scientist outbreak. ingly similar: rows and rows
University, is about equal to Mexico, a country of 130 mil- warned it is highly unlikely of graves being dug, hospitals
the population of Brussels, lion people, has received just that herd immunity — which “What was never on the ho- pushed to the limit and med-
Mecca, Minsk or Vienna. It 500,000 doses of vaccine and would require at least 70% of rizon is that so many of the ical workers dying for lack of
is roughly equivalent to the has put barely half of those the globe to be vaccinated — deaths would be in the rich- protective gear.
Cleveland metropolitan area into the arms of health care will be achieved this year. As est countries in the world,”
or the entire state of Nebras- workers. the disaster has demonstrat- said Dr. Bharat Pankhania, In Peru, which has the high-
ka. ed, it is not enough to snuff an infectious diseases expert est COVID-19 fatality rate in
That’s in sharp contrast to out the virus in a few places. at Britain’s University of Ex- Latin America, hundreds of
“There’s been a terrible the situation for its wealthier eter. “That the world’s rich- health care workers went on
amount of death," said Dr. northern neighbor. Despite “Even if it happens in a cou- est countries would misman- strike this week to demand
Ashish Jha, a pandemic ex- early delays, hundreds of ple of pockets, in a few coun- age so badly is just shocking.” better pay and working con-
pert and dean of Brown Uni- thousands of people are roll- tries, it’s not going to protect ditions in a country where
versity’s School of Public ing up their sleeves every day people across the world,” Dr. In rich and poor countries 230 doctors have died of the
Health. At the same time, he in the United States, where Soumya Swaminathan said alike, the crisis has devas- disease. In Brazil, authorities
said, "our scientific commu- the virus has killed about this week. tated economies, thrown in the Amazon rainforest's
nity has also done extraordi- 390,000, by far the highest multitudes out of work and biggest city planned to trans-
nary work.” toll of any country. Health experts fear, too, that plunged many into poverty. fer hundreds of patients out
if shots are not distributed because of a dwindling sup-
In wealthy countries includ- All told, over 35 million dos- widely and fast enough, it In Europe, where more ply of oxygen tanks that has
ing the United States, Brit- es of various COVID-19 vac- could give the virus time to than a quarter of the world's resulted in some people dy-
ain, Israel, Canada and Ger- cines have been administered mutate and defeat the vaccine deaths have taken place, strict ing at home.
many, millions of citizens around the world, according — “my nightmare scenario,” lockdowns and curfews have
have already been given some to the University of Oxford. as Jha put it. been reimposed to beat back In Honduras, anesthesiolo-
measure of protection with at a resurgence of the virus, and gist Dr. Cesar Umaña is treat-
least one dose of vaccine de- While vaccination drives in U.N. Secretary General An- a new variant that is believed ing 25 patients in their homes
veloped with revolutionary rich countries have been tonio Guterres said the 2 to be more contagious is cir- by phone because hospitals
speed and quickly authorized hamstrung by long lines, million milestone “has been culating in Britain and other lack the capacity and equip-
for use. inadequate budgets and a made worse by the absence countries, as well as the U.S. ment.
patchwork of state and local of a global coordinated ef-
But elsewhere, immuniza- approaches, the obstacles are fort.” He added: “Science has Even in some of the wealthi- “This is complete chaos,” he
tion drives have barely gotten far greater in poorer nations, succeeded, but solidarity has est countries, the vaccina- said.
off the ground. Many experts which can have weak health failed.” tion drives have been slower