Global Covid pandemic on rise again

The Covid-19 pandemic picked up speed again this week in all regions of the world except Latin America.

Here is the global state of play according to a specialised AFP database.

First rise in weeks
The average number of new daily Covid-19 cases globally increased slightly by two per cent to 377,000 over the past week, according to an AFP toll Thursday.

The increase was the first seen since late April when the pandemic reached a record level of 816,800 new daily cases.

The number of confirmed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, with different countries also having varying counting practices and levels of testing.

Slide almost everywhere
Latin America and the Caribbean was the only region of the world this week to see an improvement, with 13 per cent less cases compared to the previous week.

The pandemic surged back in all the other regions of the world: by 30 per cent in Europe, 25 per cent in Africa, 10 per cent in the Middle East, five per cent in the United States and Canada and four per cent in Asia.

In Oceania, the number of cases also increased, by 31 per cent, but on only 323 cases per day.

Biggest spikes
On a country basis, Myanmar saw the biggest surge in new cases with 119 per cent. Spain followed with 80 per cent more, Britain 71 per cent more, Tunisia 69 per cent and Cuba 68 per cent.

Biggest drops
Uruguay saw the highest drop of 35 per cent less new cases, followed by Uganda (34 per cent less), Brazil (30 per cent), Chile (minus 21 per cent) and the Dominican Republic minus 17 per cent.

Most new cases
Despite a marked slowdown of 30 per cent, Brazil still recorded the most new cases over the past week with 54,100 a day, followed by India (47,000) and Colombia (29,900).

On a per capita basis, the countries which recorded the most cases this week were the Seychelles with 975 per 1,00,000 inhabitants, followed by Mongolia with 468.

The two countries are among the most advanced in terms of their vaccination drives with 68 per cent and 53 per cent of their populations completely vaccinated respectively.

The Seychelles uses a mixture of China's Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, while Mongolia almost completely uses Sinopharm.

Deaths decrease
Brazil and India again mourned the most deaths by far over the past week, with 1,565 and 1,068 per day respectively.

At a world level, the number of daily deaths again decreased this week, by five per cent to 7,958.

Vaccination race
Portugal led the vaccination race this week (of countries with more than a million inhabitants), jabbing 1.49 per cent of its population each day.

China followed with 1.42 per cent, the Netherlands (1.25 per cent), Canada (1.23 per cent) and Uruguay (1.18 per cent).

Even though they vaccinated less quickly, the United Arab Emirates which administered 155 first or second doses per 100 inhabitants, Bahrain and Israel (both 125), Chile (120), the United Kingdom (115) and the United States (99) are among the countries with the most advanced vaccination campaigns.