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COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million before vaccine in wide use globally: WHO

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New Delhi, Sep 26: The global death toll from COVID-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used, an official at the World Health Organization said on Friday.

COVID-19 death toll could hit 2M before vaccine in wide use globally: WHO

"Unless we do it all, (2 million deaths) ... is not only imaginable, but sadly very likely," Mike Ryan, head of the UN agency's emergencies programme, told at a briefing.

The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered is nearing 1 million.

"We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of the woods in Africa," said Ryan.

He said young people should not be blamed for a recent increase in infections despite growing concerns that they are driving its spread after restrictions and lockdowns were eased around the world.

"I really hope we don't get into finger wagging: it's all because of the youth," said Ryan. "The last thing a young person needs is an old person pontificating and wagging the finger."

Rather, indoor gatherings of people of all ages were driving the epidemic, he said.

The WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible involvement in the COVAX financing scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines, a week after the deadline for committing passed.

"We're in discussions with China about the role they may play as we go forward," said Bruce Aylward, WHO senior adviser and head of the ACT-Accelerator programme to back vaccines, treatments and diagnostics against COVID-19.

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Talks with China also include discussion of the world's second-largest economy potentially supplying vaccines to the scheme, he said.

The UN agency published on Friday draft criteria for the assessment of emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines to help guide drugmakers as vaccine trials reach advanced stages, said WHO assistant director-general, Mariangela Simao.

The current number of COVID-19 indected people is 32.4M worldwide with US contnuing the worst-hit with 7.05M cases and 203K death followed by India and Brazil with 5.9M and 4.69M positive cases respectively.

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