Coronavirus: WHO warns global COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million even with vaccine

So far, the US, India and Brazil have confirmed the most cases, recording more than 15 million between them.

The global coronavirus death toll could hit two million before an effective vaccine is widely used, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
 

Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies head, said the figure could be higher without concerted international action.

Almost one million people have died with COVID-19 worldwide since the disease first emerged in China late last year.

“Unless we do it all, (2 million deaths) … is not only imaginable, but sadly very likely,” Mike Ryan, head of the UN agency’s emergencies program, told a briefing on Friday.

The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered in China is nearing 1 million.

The WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible involvement in the COVAX financing scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines, a week after the deadline for committing passed.

Earlier on Friday, a Chinese health official said the WHO had given its support for the country to start administering experimental coronavirus vaccines to people even while clinical trials were still underway.