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PARIS: More than 1 million people have died from the coronavirus, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) issue, after the deadly disease emerged less than a year ago in China and spread around the world.
The pandemic has devastated the global economy, inflamed geopolitical tensions and disrupted lives, from the slums of India and the jungles of Brazil to the largest city in the United States, New York.
Sports, live entertainment and international travel came to a halt when fans, the public and tourists were forced to stay home, kept indoors by strict measures imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
Drastic controls that put half of humanity, more than 4 billion people, under some form of lockdown in April initially slowed their pace, but since the restrictions were relaxed, cases have skyrocketed again.
On Sunday 2230 GMT, the disease had claimed 1,000,009 victims of the 33,018,877 registered infections, according to an AFP count using official sources.
The United States has the highest death toll with more than 200,000 deaths, followed by Brazil, India, Mexico and Great Britain.
With scientists still racing to find a vaccine that works, governments are again forced into an uncomfortable balancing act: Virus controls slow the spread of the disease, but hurt already faltering economies and businesses.
Europe, hit hard by the first wave, is now facing another surge in cases, with Paris, London and Madrid forced to introduce controls for the slow infections that threaten to overwhelm hospitals.
Mid-September saw a record rise in cases in most regions and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that virus deaths could even double to 2 million without further global collective action.
“One million is a terrible number and we must think about that before we start considering a second million,” WHO emergency director Michael Ryan told reporters.
“Are we collectively prepared to do whatever it takes to avoid that number?”
Crucially, nine vaccine candidates are in late-stage clinical trials, with the hope that some will be rolled out next year, although questions remain as to how and when they will be distributed worldwide.
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