Two hundred million is an enormous number.

But as the world recorded the 200 millionth detected case of coronavirus infection, that daunting figure — more than the populations of Germany, France and Spain combined — also fails to capture how far the virus has embedded itself within humanity.

While always an imperfect measure of a virus that causes no symptoms in many of the people it infects, with many infections going unreported, case counts have provided a useful tool for much of the pandemic — like a flashing red light in the cockpit of a jetliner warning of imminent danger.

A surge in case numbers has too often been followed by a crush of people crowding emergency rooms.

And then, several weeks later, fatality counts have typically spiked.

It took more than a year for the pandemic to reach its 100 millionth case, and little more than six months to double that, with the world surpassing the 200 million figure on Wednesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The number of those killed by the virus is also staggering.

The official tallies stand at more than 614,000 deaths in the US, 558,000 in Brazil and 425,00 in India.

Mexico has recorded more than 240,000 fatalities, and Peru nearly 200,000. Britain, Colombia, France, Italy and Russia have each recorded well over 100,000 deaths.

The global toll as of Wednesday was about 4.25 million — a serious underestimate, experts say, given the discrepancies in the way nations record Covid deaths.

New York Times News Service