The worldwide coronavirus death toll has surpassed two million, according to a Reuters tally, as nations around the world are trying to procure multiple vaccines and detect new Covid-19 variants.

It took nine months for the world to record the first one million deaths from the novel coronavirus but only three months to go from one million to two million deaths, illustrating an accelerating rate of fatalities.

“Our world has reached a heart-wrenching milestone,” United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said in a video statement.

“Behind this staggering number are names and faces: the smile now only a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” he said, calling for more global coordination and funding for the vaccination effort.