The global death toll from Covid-19 has now surpassed 6 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The milestone is a grim reminder of the power and destructiveness of the coronavirus pandemic over the past three years. In the U.S., the death total stands at more than 958,000, the highest in the world.
According to the Associated Press, it took seven months to record the first million deaths from Covid-19 in 2020. It took four months to record the next million, and another million people died roughly every three months since then, until the total hit 5 million in October.
As bleak as the tally may be, experts say the real number is almost certainly higher. “Confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of deaths due to COVID, mostly because of limited testing, and challenges in the attribution of the cause of death,” data expert Edouard Mathieu told the AP. “In some, mostly rich, countries that fraction is high and the official tally can be considered to be fairly accurate, but in others it is highly underestimated.”