PARIS: The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated sharply this week in Europe and the United States, strongly affected by a very contagious Delta variant: here are the striking weekly developments.
An important indicator, however, the number of cases diagnosed only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections and comparisons between countries should be taken with caution, as testing policies differ from one country to another.
More than 500,000 daily cases
With 521,800 contaminations recorded daily in the world this week, the indicator has accelerated sharply (+ 9% compared to the previous week), according to a report stopped on Thursday. The pandemic has been gaining ground since mid-June, after slowing down sharply for almost two months.
Deterioration almost everywhere
This week, only Africa and the Latin America / Caribbean area saw their situation improve, with respectively 11% and 9% fewer new cases compared to the previous week.
The pandemic has accelerated in all the other regions: + 62% in the United States / Canada zone (due to the United States alone, the cases falling in Canada), + 42% in Oceania (the coronavirus still circulates relatively little there , 1,200 cases per day), + 26% in Europe, + 7% in the Middle East, + 5% in Asia.
Very contagious, the Delta variant of the coronavirus has become the majority in much of Europe and in the United States.
Stronger accelerations
France is the country where the epidemic has accelerated the most (+ 193%, 14,300 new cases per day), among those having recorded at least 1,000 daily contaminations during the past week. This increase is however a little overestimated due to a public holiday the previous week (national holiday on July 14).
Israel (+ 150%, 1,300), Italy (+ 115%, 3,400), Vietnam (+ 104%, 4,800) and Rwanda (+ 72%, 1,400) follow.
Stronger declines
Conversely, it was Tunisia (-40%, 4,500 new cases per day) and Namibia (-40%, 700) which recorded the strongest declines this week, ahead of Kuwait (-39%, 1 000), Zambia (-35%, 1,100) and Chile (-31%, 1,500).
The most contaminations
The United Kingdom is the country with the highest number of new infections in absolute terms this week (45,900 daily cases, + 24%), ahead of Indonesia (43,800, -1%) and the United States ( 42,900, + 63%).
In proportion to the population, the country with the most new cases this week remains the archipelago of Fiji (834 per 100,000 inhabitants), ahead of Cyprus (782) and Seychelles (545). The United Kingdom (473) and Spain (380) are also among the ten highest incidence rates in the world.
Death
Indonesia has the highest number of daily deaths, with 1,263 deaths per day this week, ahead of Brazil (1,153) and India (1,000).
Ecuador is vaccinating at full speed
Ecuador is this week the fastest vaccinating country among those with more than one million inhabitants, administering doses to 1.75% of its population each day. Mauritius (1.57%), Denmark (1.30%), Malaysia (1.29%), Ireland (1.25%), Sri Lanka (1.05%) and France (1.04%).
If they now vaccinate more slowly, the United Arab Emirates (166 doses administered per 100 inhabitants), Chile (128), Israel (128), Canada (124) and the United Kingdom (122) are among the countries whose vaccination campaigns are the most advanced.
This indicator can exceed 100 doses per 100 inhabitants since most vaccines in circulation require two doses to be fully effective.
–
