More than 6 million people around the world have died from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, less than a week away from the second anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic.
The global milestone comes as some countries, including the US, climb down from the winter’s COVID-19 surge, which saw record-breaking numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths fueled by the omicron variant.
While omicron causes less severe disease compared to the delta variant, which was the dominant strain until omicron overtook it this winter, COVID-19 still causes severe disease for some people, leading to high COVID-19 hospitalization rates. In early February, the US surpassed 900,000 deaths from the virus.
Recently, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened the mask guidance for most of the country as the average number of COVID-19 cases decreased. However, some countries, including China, are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Even as the highly contagious omicron variant reduces the infection protection of the available COVID-19 vaccines, they’ve maintained protection against severe disease and death. According to Our World in Data, 63.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 13.6% of people living in low-income countries have received a COVID-19 shot.
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