'World at a perilous point': COVID-19 death toll crosses 4 million worldwide

Adding to the list of grim milestones, Coronavirus deaths have crossed four million on Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) said. "The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The grim milestone was crossed as several western countries are inching towards unlocking their economies completely. Meanwhile, several Asian countries are facing a Covid crisis.

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WHO chief took a dig at rich nations unlocking countries after vaccinating a certain percentage of the population. He said some countries who have high vaccination coverage are "relaxing as though the pandemic is already over".

"Some countries with high vaccination coverage are now planning to rollout booster shots in the coming months and are dropping public health social measures and relaxing as though the #COVID19 pandemic is already over," Tedros said.

He also stressed the contrast between the rich and the poor nations. While the rich nations are unlocking after procuring and inoculating coronavirus vaccines, other countries are struggling to control the widespread of the Delta variant as they are unable to procure vaccines.

"Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production & distribution, which also threatens the global economic recovery. It didn’t have to be this way & it doesn’t have to be this way going forward," Tedros said.

As per a Reuters analysis, it took nearly a year to record two million Covid deaths. However, the next two million deaths were recorded within 166 days. The US, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico have recorded 50 per cent of total deaths in the world. Peru, Bosnia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar have the highest death rates according to the population.

This grim milestone has come as Indonesia has reported the worst-ever Covid crisis in the country as locals struggle to get access to oxygen cylinders for their family members.

Meanwhile, the UK has announced plans to lift all Covid-related restrictions by July 19 – a plan which has gained criticism from all around the world. The WHO, however, has urged 'extreme caution' in lifting Covid restrictions.

Tedros also urged countries to drop 'vaccine nationalism' and help the poorer nations by donating vaccines to them through the Covax programme. "Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share, is morally indefensible & an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly & becoming increasingly effective at moving from human-to-human," he said. "At this stage in the #COVID19 pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent."

"From a moral, epidemiological or economic point view, now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively," he said.