The global COVID-19 death toll exceeded 5 million on Monday, less than four months after reaching the 4-million mark, once again sounding the alarm about the grave threat still posed by the pandemic.
After nearly two years, the war against the lethal pathogen has entered a nasty stalemate, with humanity trying to sharpen its weapon of immunity while the virus quickly evolves to dodge it.
To maintain an edge over the cunning enemy, the international community must ensure vaccine equity and strengthen global cooperation.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States remains the worst-hit country with about 46 million cases and about 746,000 deaths, accounting for more than 18 percent of the global caseload and nearly 15 percent of the global death toll.
Brazil recorded the world's second-highest death toll, at about 608,000, followed by India with about 458,000 deaths.
The COVID-19 pandemic situation in Europe is worsening as another winter approaches. It is the only region with increases in infections across all age groups, while five over regions have reported a decline last week, according to the World Health Organization.
Russia has registered 40,402 COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, taking the national tally to 8,554,192, the official monitoring and response center said Monday.
Meanwhile, the situation in some Asian and African countries remains worrisome.
For example, Mongolia has seen a resurgence of COVID-19 due to the highly contagious Delta variant, although 65.8 percent of its population have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 8,494,634 as of Sunday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
