Covid-19 death toll tops five million in less than two years

Mourners in Colombia (AP)

The global death toll from Covid-19 has topped five million, according to Johns Hopkins University, less than two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

Together, the US, the European Union, UK and Brazil – all upper-middle- or high-income countries – account for one-eighth of the world’s population, but nearly half of all reported deaths.