More than 1.3 mn coronavirus deaths worldwide

By : Amos

Date: 14 November 2020 11:34am WAT

This handout photograph taken on February 1, 2020 and released by Zhang Hai, shows medical workers preparing to take away the body of Zhang Lifa, the father of Zhang Hai, after he died from the COVID-19 coronavirus in a hospital in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province. - Some families accuse the Wuhan and Hubei provincial governments of concealing the outbreak when it first emerged there late last year, failing to alert the public, and bungling the response, allowing Covid-19 to explode out of control. (Photo by Handout / Zhang Hai / AFP)

More than 1.3 million people have been killed by the novel coronavirus worldwide, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

In total, there have been at least 1,303,783 deaths for 53,380,442 declared cases of Covid-19, although experts say the official data is likely to capture only a fraction of the number of total infections and fatalities.

New cases and deaths are accelerating again as a second wave of infections strikes Europe and the United States.

Nearly one in five deaths occurred in the US (244,345), while Brazil was the next most affected country measured by deaths (164,737), then India (129,188), Mexico (97,624) and Britain (51,304).

The world celebrated news this week about major advances in the hunt for vaccines against the coronavirus, but a top WHO expert warned in an interview with AFP that disinformation and public distrust will render them useless against the pandemic.