World has recorded 500,000 more Covid deaths since emergence of Omicron
‘In the age of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it’s really something,’ WHO says
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Half a million deaths have been registered around the world since the Omicron variant – believed to be highly transmissible – emerged less than three months ago, according to the World Health Organisation.
More than 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths have been recorded globally since Omicron was declared a variant of concern in late November, according to the WHO.
Though cases have dropped significantly around the world in the last one week – with a 17 per cent drop worldwide and a 50 per cent drop in the United States – the WHO maintained that half a million deaths in three months was a “tragic” figure.
“In the age of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it’s really something,” the organisation’s incident manager Abdi Mahamud said during a live interaction on the WHO’s social media channels. “While everyone was saying Omicron is milder, [they] missed the point that half a million people have died since this was detected.”
Omicron, due to its high transmissibility, quickly replaced Delta as the main variant in several countries, making up nearly 97 per cent of all cases tallied by the international virus-tracking platform known as GISAID. Just over 3 per cent were of the Delta variant, the WHO said.
According to WHO representative Maria Van Kerkhove, the staggering number of recorded Omicron cases is already shocking. However, the real numbers are likely to be much higher.
“It makes the previous peaks look almost flat,” she said, adding that the peak is still far for many countries.
“We’re still in the middle of this pandemic,” she added. “Many countries have not passed their peak of Omicron yet. This virus continues to be dangerous.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic with the detection of Covid-19 in China in 2019, more than 5.7 million people have lost their lives, while over 392 million cases have been reported.
Additional reporting by agencies
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments