COVID-19 death toll passes 1 million

The number of people worldwide who have died of Covid-19 has passed one million, researchers say, with many regions still reporting surging numbers of new infections.

The tally by Johns Hopkins University shows that deaths in US, Brazil and India make up nearly half that total.

Experts caution that the true figure is probably much higher.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “mind-numbing” figure and “an agonizing milestone”.

The development comes nearly 10 months after news of corona virus began to emerge from Wuhan, China.