Vaccines help slash coronavirus death rate to 2%: Hopkins data

Unequal access and distrust loom large as global death toll tops 5 million

A boy in Bogota receives a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac. Roughly half of the global population has received at least one shot so far. © Reuters

AIKO MUNAKATA and HANA SLEVIN OHAMA, Nikkei staff writers

November 2, 2021 11:05 JST

TOKYO -- Though global deaths from the coronavirus topped 5 million on Monday, the pandemic's mortality rate has plunged from its peak thanks to the progress on vaccinations in developed countries.

The virus' mortality rate, or cumulative deaths over cumulative infections, is currently at around 2%, according to data from Johns Hopkins University -- less than one-third of where it was in the spring of 2020.