With the world poised to hit more than five million people officially dead from the coronavirus, experts believe the pandemic's future path will depend greatly on vaccinations.

The true number of fatalities is believed to be far higher than the five million based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country, according to AFP.

The Economist magazine looked at excess mortality and concluded around 17 million have died from Covid. “This figure seems more credible to me,” Pasteur Institute epidemiologist Professor Arnaud Fontanet told AFP.

The strong resurgence in eastern Europe has confirmed that failure to vaccinate enough people exposes a population to “severe epidemics with an impact on hospitals”, according to Fontanet.