The world death toll from COVID-19 topped 3 million in the wake of recurring setbacks in the international immunization drive and an escalating crisis in countries like France, Brazil and India, Agence France Presse reported Sunday.
More than 100,000 people have died from the virus in France. The fatality rate is rising in Michigan in the U.S. and morgues are overflowing in morgues in some cities in India.
"We are running out of space," according to remarks quoted by The New York Times from Mohammed Shamin, a gravedigger at New Delhi's largest Muslim cemetery.
"If we don't get more space, you'll soon see bodies rotting in the streets," he said.
The number of people who have died is almost equal to the population of Lisbon in Portugal, Caracas in Venezuela or Kyiv in Ukraine, according to figures by Johns Hopkins University.
World deaths hit 1 million in September 2020 and 2 million in January.
Deaths have surpassed 3,000 per day in Brazil. In Mexico, more than 211,000 deaths have been recorded. India has more than 175,000 fatalities and the UK has topped 127,000.
And as the U.S. and other developed countries are scrambling to vaccinate populations new hot spots have emerged in parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.
In comparison 3 million people is bigger than the population of Armenia or Jamaica - and three times the death toll of the eight-year Iraq-Iran war.
And the actual figure is believed to be higher because of possible government concealment and the many COVID cases that were overlooked in the early days of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019.
"This isn't the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic - where we've proven control measures," the World Health Organization's Maria Van Kerkhove said.
