The virus has claimed one million lives since it first emerged in China late last year. The global death toll from the new coronavirus, which emerged less than a year ago in China and has swept across the world, passed 1 million on Sunday. The United States has the highest death toll with more than 200,000 fatalities followed by Brazil, India, Mexico and Britain. With scientists still racing to find a working vaccine, governments are again forced into an uneasy balancing act: Virus controls slow the spread of the disease, but they hurt already reeling economies and businesses. "One million is a terrible number and we need to reflect on that before we start considering a second million," the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters on Friday.

Source: Bangkok Post September 27, 2020 22:52 UTC