A woman breaks down as she prays before the cremation of a relative who died of COVID-19 in Gauhati, India. File/AP

The global coronavirus death toll has topped 4 million on Wednesday, as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant.

Since vaccines became available, reported coronavirus deaths globally have dropped to around 8,000 per day, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January.

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The World Health Organization recorded just fewer than 54,000 deaths last week, the lowest weekly total since last October.

Over the past year and a half the death toll, compiled from official sources by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the number of people killed in battle in all of the world’s wars since 1982, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Medical staff members transport a COVID-19 patient at the Honorio Delgado Hospital in Arequipa, Peru. File/AP

The toll is three times the number of lives killed in traffic accidents around the world every year.

It is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is equivalent to more than half of Hong Kong or close to 50 per cent of New York City.

The disparity, coupled with the mutant delta version of the virus, has set alarms around the world.

While vaccination campaigns in the US and parts of Europe are ushering in a period of post-lockdown euphoria, and children there are being inoculated so that they can go back to summer camp and school, infection rates are still stubbornly high in many parts of South America and Southeast Asia. And multitudes in Africa remain unprotected because of severe vaccine shortages.

The variant has been detected in at least 96 countries. Australia, Israel, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other places have reimposed restrictions to try to suppress it.

A family member shovels dirt into the grave at El Cebollar cemetery, in Arequipa, Peru. File/AP

The variants, uneven access to vaccines and the relaxation of precautions in some wealthier countries are "a toxic combination that is very dangerous,” warned Ann Lindstrand, a top immunization official at WHO.

In Latin America, just 1 in 10 people have been fully vaccinated, contributing to a rise in cases in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay. Meanwhile, the virus is penetrating remote areas of Africa that were previously spared, contributing to a sharp rise in cases.

The UN-backed effort to distribute vaccines to poor countries, known as COVAX, has also faltered badly. Its biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, stopped exporting vaccines in March to deal with the epidemic on the subcontinent.