On road to ending pandemic More people vaccinated than total cases to date: Data

(Reuters) 4 February 2021 - More people are now vaccinated against COVID-19 than have been infected by the virus that has swept the globe over the past year -a milestone on the road to ending the pandemic, based on data reported on Wednesday.   

Despite the landmark data, it remains unclear how long it will take to vaccinate the world. Many of those vaccinated have received only one of two doses required.   

A total of 104.9 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to University of Oxford-based Our World in Data here and the latest data on Wednesday from the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. The total vaccinated now exceeds the 104.1 million COVID-19 cases of infection in a Reuters global tracker here.   

COVID-19 infections here are still rising in 44 countries and the virus has killed at least 2.26 million people globally, according to the Reuters tracker. Health experts are racing to vaccinate as many as possible in the face of new variants that are more contagious.   

Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center here confirms global purchases of 7.7 billion doses with another 5 billion doses under negotiation or reserved as optional expansions of existing deals.