PARIS: The global Covid-19 death toll passed three million on Saturday as the pandemic speeds up despite vaccination campaigns, leading countries like India to impose new lockdowns to fight spiralling infection numbers. For comparison, three million people is more than the population of Jamaica or Armenia – and three times the death toll of the Iran-Iraq war, which raged from 1980-1988. The daily average of 731,000 cases registered over the last week is also close to being a record. In Japan, rising virus cases have stoked speculation that the Olympic Games – postponed last year due to the pandemic – could be cancelled. Earlier Saturday, Spain extended the mandatory quarantine of passengers arriving from 12 countries in South America and Africa, including Brazil and South Africa.

Source: Libya Today April 17, 2021 23:03 UTC