2 Million People Have Now Died From COVID-19 Worldwide

MEXICO CITY — The global death toll from the coronavirus has topped 2 million.

It crossed the threshold on Friday, according to tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The bleak milestone comes amid a monumental but uneven effort to vaccinate people against the coronavirus.

Some countries are seeing real hope of vanquishing outbreaks. In wealthy countries including the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, tens of millions of citizens have already received shots. But elsewhere, immunization drives have barely gotten off the ground.

Many health experts are predicting another year of loss and hardship in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil. Those four countries collectively account for about a quarter of the world’s deaths.

The U.S. leads the world with nearly 390,000 confirmed deaths.