Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed a grim milestone of 4 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.
It took over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to hit 2 million, while the next 2 million were recorded in just 166 days, according to a Reuters analysis.
While the number of new cases and deaths have abated in many regions, several nations have vaccine shortages as the Delta variant becomes the dominant strain around the world.
The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico – represent about 50% of all deaths in the world.