2M COVID-19 deaths confirmed in European Region: WHO

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region said Thursday it has reached a "grim milestone" and exceeded 2 million deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic in its 53 countries.

"While this number is devastating, it represents a fraction of the overall deaths directly and indirectly associated with COVID-19, as WHO's report on excess mortality during the pandemic has shown," said the WHO Europe in a statement.

The global death toll for the disease is 6,258,023, according to the WHO.

WHO Europe extends from Greenland in the northwest to the Russian Far East.

"While case numbers are declining in the region, they remain far too high.

"COVID-19 continues to remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is still a killer virus, especially for the unvaccinated and clinically vulnerable," said the WHO.

WHO provided testimony from Safiah Ngah from the UK capital London, who said she is just one of those who lost a loved one -- in her case, her father, a doctor -- to COVID-19.

"I can't put into words how much losing my dad has affected my life and my family's life," Ngah said.

"It feels like the foundation of our lives has just been ripped apart."

WHO said the world can act together and leave the acute phase of the pandemic by taking definitive steps on many fronts, now and in the long term.

"These include protecting the most vulnerable, continuing to monitor the virus and its spread, keeping health systems ready for any developments of the pandemic, and tackling its long-term impacts," said WHO.

Such impacts include "the looming prospect of millions of people with the post-COVID condition or long COVID."