Kathmandu- It has been nearly nine months since the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the world. Also known as the coronavirus pandemic, the outbreak which was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has since affected 22,812,491 people and caused 795,132 deaths worldwide.
As of August 22, the countries that have been most affected by the disease are the United States with 5,521,257 cases, Brazil with 3,501,975 cases, India with 2,975,701 cases and Russia with 951,897 cases, according to open source data published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Regionally, the Americas, Europe and South-East Asia have reported the most cases.
Similarly, the US has the highest COVID-19 death toll with 173,098 people having succumbed to the disease. Brazil, Mexico and India follow with 112,304, 59,106 and 55,794 deaths, respectively. While the global death toll has reached 800,000, 14.7 million people have recovered from the virus.
Spread primarily via nose and mouth secretions, including small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, and talking, the virus has substantially halted major forms of movement between people on local, regional, national and international levels.
While the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the pandemic could be over within two years, a leading UK scientist has warned that the virus could remain “with us forever in some form or another.”
