Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After Covid-19 began to infect the world in January 2020, the first million deaths were recorded 10 months later (on September 28), the second million after five months (February 21, 2021), while the third million was added in less than two months (on April 17, 2021).
Clearly, the coronavirus is mutating faster than ever and claiming more deaths in an ever-shortening period.
Across the world, the killer virus has infected 140,630,831 people so far, of whom 3,014,739 died and 119,455,330 recovered, according to the latest statistics available on Saturday.
In terms of deaths, the United States, Brazil and Mexico lead the world but India, too, is not far behind as it has been recording daily highs over the last few weeks.
When the pandemic hit, a study by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in their assessment of 195 countries, claimed that the US would best manage the crisis because of its superior healthcare and medical infrastructure.
A year on, the US has the dubious distinction of more than 564,800 virus-related deaths, about one in 567 people, and tops the world in terms of Covid-19 deaths. Not only did the former President, Donald Trump, refuse to wear a mask in public until July 11, 2020, or seriously address the pandemic, he even played it down to avert panic. Testing and contact tracing inadequacies in the initial days, states reopening ahead of his own administration’s guidelines and selective statistics made the US situation worst.
Ironically, according to a Pew Research Center survey, only 29% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believed in the use of masks.
After the US, Brazil was the second-worst affected country, until India became one recently. Brazil, at 368,749 deaths, had the second-highest toll in the world as the South American nation battles with the second wave surging now. In recent weeks, it has accounted for around one in four of reported Covid-19 deaths worldwide, media reported.
Political infighting and distrust of science have largely led to the deaths in Brazil. Like Trump in the US, President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, too, had largely dismissed the dangers and resisted calls for a lockdown.
Initially, he mocked Covid-19 as “just little flu”, rejected a nationwide lockdown believing that such measures only made the poor poorer, called state governors and mayors who imposed lockdown “tyrants” and cast doubts on the efficacy and safety of vaccines, stating that the Pfizer jab would “turn people into crocodiles”.
Recently, the University of Washington predicted that Brazil could see a total of more than 500,000 deaths by July. A poor vaccination program in Brazil, with just half the target of 46 million vaccine doses being delivered by the end of March, has compounded its woes.
The third country to bear the brunt of most Covid-19 deaths is Mexico. A report by the University of California, San Francisco, showed that Mexico’s unwillingness to spend money on healthcare systems, conduct more tests, change the course of treatment or react to new scientific evidence contributed to the country being one of the worst-hit by the pandemic.
So far, Mexico has officially recorded 211,693 deaths out of its population of 126 million. Since little testing is done, it acknowledges the real toll is around 330,000.
Deaths due to Covid-19 in India have been comparatively lower. The best parameter to measure deaths is Infection Fatality Rate (IFR), which is deaths as a proportion of total infections (and not just confirmed infections). Total infections are estimated through serosurveys. The IFR in India is 0.08% according to initial government surveys. The US estimate is about 0.6%, about eight times that of India. Almost half the difference can be attributed to India’s relatively younger population, reports said.
India left Brazil behind this month to become the second most affected country. With nearly 200,000 infections being added daily this week, the total number of cases in the country stood at 14,526,609 and deaths at 175, 673. Experts fear that the numbers may further zoom until June due to potential ‘super spreaders’ heading home from religious and political events.