The world will witness 5.3 million registered fatalities and 12 million excess deaths by December (2021) as the delta variant of COVID-19 drives a spurt in cases, as per the projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
The US-based institute anticipates coronavirus-related deaths to peak at the beginning of September, and then decline gradually, it said in a report published on August 6, Bloomberg reported.
The IHME's projections discern between officially reported COVID deaths and excess deaths ascribed to the illness comprising unreported fatalities.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been around 4.3 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic.
The delta variant is linked to viral loads that are over 1,200 times higher in newly infected people compared with the original COVID strain. This means delta can spread as easily as chickenpox.
Several studies from the UK have also demonstrated that delta variant, detected in India in October last year, is more resistant to vaccines than the alpha variant that surfaced in England in late 2020.