The mask mandate being lifted here in the United States sparked an optimism amongst people, as it’s currently providing a possible end in sight when it comes to COVID-19. With the spring weather rolling in, and more people spending time outside, most are starting to feel more at ease. However, while everyone wants to forget COVID ever happened, understandably so, it still remains to be a prevalent illness, and is still sparking crises and jeopardy not only in the United States, but the rest of the world as well. 

The United States alone has reached 974,431 deaths due to COVID, making it the country with the highest death rate over any other wealthy country in the world. According to BBC News, Brazil has 659,227 deaths due to COVID, and India currently has 521,070 deaths.  As of April 4th, 2022, the United States, India, and Brazil are the countries with the highest share of  COVID-19 cases across the globe, and these three countries’ cases account for 17% of cases around the world, according to Statistica. 

There are a combination of reasons as to why these countries hold the highest share of COVID-19 related deaths. When it comes to vaccination, the United States has failed to vaccinate nearly as many people as it should, especially when it comes to the elderly. A New York Times report states 12% of Americans over the age of 65 have not received the first two doses of either Moderna or Pfizer. Additionally, 43% of people that are over the age of 65 have not received the booster as well. According to The New York Times, when it comes to administrating booster shots, the United States fell behind in administering these shots, thus leaving a large number of individuals vulnerable. Health officials have announced since the first Omicron case, “the share of Americans who have been killed by the coronavirus is at least 63 percent higher than in any of these other large, wealthy nations” according to The New York Times. The higher the amount of unvaccinated individuals get, the more hospitalizations there will be. 

In India, while 5,488 cases of COVID infections were due to the Omicron variant as of January, the predominant strain in India was still the delta variant, according to CNBC. As of February, the number of cases in India do seem to be declining. Earlier in January there were reports of 340,000 cases, but that number has gone down to 172,433 cases according to The New York Times. However, spikes of high COVID numbers were said to be due to a backlog of about 18,000 deaths to the country’s tally as of February.