One million people died from Covid this year, reports WHO 

The WHO is urging governments to step up their vaccination programmes.

One million people have died around the world from Covid-19 this year, the World Health Organization has said, as it urged governments to step up vaccination programmes.

Irish data shows 62 people died between July 24 and August 20 this year. This brings the total number of Covid-deaths reported here to 7,758, the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre said on Thursday.

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while vaccination rates are increasing, there are still 10 countries with less than 10% vaccination coverage.

“We cannot say we are learning to live with Covid-19 when one million people have died from Covid-19 this year alone,” he said.

Some countries are making impressive progress, he said, but added:

Much more needs to be to be done, one third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated. 

He said high vaccination rates are the best way to drive a sustainable recovery from the pandemic for everyone.

Overall there have been 6.4m Covid-deaths reported, the WHO data shows. This includes 4,055 deaths across Europe last week.

Numbers of new cases worldwide fell by 9% last week compared to the previous week, with over 5.3m new cases reported. Cases dropped by 20% across Europe.

Monkeypox figures

Dr Tedros also addressed the monkeypox outbreak during a briefing on global health challenges.

“Last week, the number of weekly reported cases fell by more than 20%,” he said.

Cases rose, however, across the Americas which now have 60% of reported cases.,

“In the early stages of the outbreak, most reported cases were in Europe with a smaller proportion in the Americas. That has now reversed,” he said.

“There are signs that the outbreak is slowing in Europe.” 

Up to Wednesday, 13 people were reported to have died of monkeypox in this outbreak, with 44,464 cases confirmed to the WHO from 99 countries.

At the same briefing, WHO lead on monkeypox Dr Rosamund Lewis said blood donation programmes in every country carefully screen applicants to rule out the presence of any infections.

“The period of time the virus is in the blood is very limited,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Indian health authorities in some states are dealing with a condition known as tomato fever because of the painful red blisters it causes on the skin.

The condition is not related to Covid-19 and scientists think it could be an after-effect of chikungunya or dengue fever in children rather than a viral infection.