Total COVID deaths in Europe could exceed 2.2 million by March -WHO

FILE PHOTO: A health worker stands near an ambulance carring a COVID-19 patient, as they wait in the queue at a hospital for people infected with the coronavirus disease in Kyiv, Ukraine October 18, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday there could be a further 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 in Europe by March, taking the total to above 2.2 million, as the world body urged people to get vaccinated.

Total cumulative deaths from the respiratory disease in the 53 countries of the WHO's European region have already surpassed 1.5 million, it said, with the daily rate doubling from late September to 4,200 a day.