More than 700,000 people have died of COVID-19 — with one person dying every 15 seconds on average in the last 2 weeks alone
- As of Wednesday, 700,000 people around the world have died from COVID-19.
- According to Reuters, 5,900 people have died each day from the virus in the last two weeks alone, meaning one person has died every 15 seconds on average.
- The US, Brazil, and Mexico are currently experiencing the worst outbreaks, though European countries are also bracing for a second wave.
- The US and Brazil are pressing ahead with reopening schools and businesses despite high new daily case numbers.
Seven hundred thousand people have now died of COVID-19 worldwide, according to Reuters and the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
An analysis of global death tolls in the past two weeks, conducted by Reuters, found that around 5,900 people died every 24 hours between July 22 and August 5.
That equates to 247 deaths per hour, or one death every 15 seconds. The number of deaths per minute for fortnightly periods before July 22 is not known, and Reuters did not give a historical comparison.
The US, Brazil, and Mexico are currently experiencing the worst outbreaks.
The US has reported more than 1,000 deaths a day for the last 10 days, while the federal government has tried hard to get students back to school and avoid reimposing lockdowns or restrictions on businesses.
The US is the worst-hit country in the world, with at least 153,000 deaths and 4.7 million confirmed cases as of Wednesday.
Brazil, considered the epicenter of the virus in South America, is similarly struggling to control the virus.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who himself caught the coronavirus last month, is pressing ahead with ending lockdowns, despite his country's reporting a record numbers of new daily cases a week ago.
Last week, Mexico leapfrogged the UK to become the country with the third-most deaths in the world.
As of Tuesday, Mexico's death toll sat at 48,869. That day Mexico also recorded one of its highest daily death tolls so far, with 857 new deaths.
While Europe has seen the back of the worst stage of the pandemic, a second wave may be coming. Infections in Spain and Germany have both been on the rise recently.