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‘Tragic milestone’ reached as Covid-19 deaths hit one million in 2022: WHO

The virus has claimed one million lives this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced

Coronavirus Covid-19 Saudi Arabia
Covid-19 global death toll could be as high as 20m says World Health Organisation

One-third of the population still remains unvaccinated, this devastatingly includes healthcare workers and older individuals in low-income countries.

”We cannot say we are learning to live with Covid-19 when one 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,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Covid-19 media briefing.

”Once again, 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 percent vaccine coverage for the whole population.” he strongly emphasised.

Since the pandemic began over two and a half years ago, more than 6.4 million affected by the virus have died, according to WHO data.

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.

Ten countries have less than 10 percent vaccination coverage, most of which are facing humanitarian emergencies.

Covid-19 continues to impact the world as people are trying to learn to live with the virus, however, this tragic milestone is a reminder that guards cannot be let down – countries need to continue to step up their fight against COVID.

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Matthew Amlot

Matthew Amlôt is the Editorial Director of Arabian Business. He has spent the majority of his professional career in the Middle East reporting on breaking business and political news from the region....