The official global death toll from Covid-19 eclipsed 6 million — underscoring that the pandemic, now entering its third year, is far from over.

Remote Pacific islands, whose isolation had protected them for more than two years, are just now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to mainland China’s “zero-Covid” strategy.

Read more from AP here.

Nurses perform timed breathing exercises on a Covid-19 patient on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at the la Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France, on Dec 31, 2021. — AP
Nurses perform timed breathing exercises on a Covid-19 patient on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at the la Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France, on Dec 31, 2021. — AP

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