Driven by India and South America, global coronavirus cases hit new high

Globally, the number of new coronavirus cases has skyrocketed since early March, more than doubling in two months. In the past two weeks, new global cases have surpassed the previous peak, reached in early January. The average daily rate of new cases remained above 800,000 for more than a week.

The increase in cases is largely due to to the uncontrolled epidemic in India, where the new cases has increased significantly in the last month and they show no signs of slowing down.

The seven-day moving average of new daily cases in the country surpassed 357,000 on Thursday, an increase of more than five times since April 1.

India now accounts for over 40% of new cases worldwide. The country’s death rate has followed the same dramatic curve, with more than 3000 people who die every day. Analysts say even these grim numbers can be understated.

The second wave of the virus in India was devastating. In hospitals in the capital New Delhi, the shortage of medical oxygen has reached crisis levels, and cremation grounds operate non-stop as family and friends continue to bring in more bodies to burn.

After promulgating one of the tightest shutdowns in the world last March, which kept the death toll relatively low, Indian authorities relaxed restrictions.

Some politicians have even staged massive rallies in recent weeks as the country’s infection rate skyrocketed. The increase has left hospitals overwhelmed.

“People are angry because they are not getting respirators or oxygen,” said Dr Rakesh Kumar, a doctor in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. “They say, ‘We pay for the facilities; So why are our patients dying?

Healthcare professionals in India are facing an overwhelming situation. “No hospital has closed and no doctor has withdrawn from the front lines,” one doctor wrote in a Facebook post. “We are fighting missiles with sticks, but we are not leaving the fort.”

Deployment of the vaccine in India has been too slow to stem the tide of cases, even though the country is one of the world’s largest vaccine producers. Less than 2% of its residents are fully vaccinated and less than 10% have received at least one dose.

Worrisome trends are also observed in other countries and regions. Uruguay, which is currently recording highest number of cases per capita in the world, adds nearly 3,000 cases a day, a staggering number in a country of just 3.5 million people.

Besides Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Colombia are among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of deaths from Covid per capita.

Several factors have combined to fuel the epidemic in South America. In Brazil, the continent’s largest country, President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissive attitude towards the threat posed by the virus has led to a month-long crisis that has spread to neighboring countries.

And early research has indicated that the P.1 variant, first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus at the end of last year, may be more transmissible and deadly than previous forms of the virus.

Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellín, is also among the places where serious epidemics are occurring. Authorities were able to control the virus to a large extent last year.

But a second and third wave, in January and April, devastated the city. Although authorities added 1,000 new intensive care units to the region in 2020, this preparation has not been sufficient.

Recently, Dr Andrés Aguirre, who runs the Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital, said that some 300 patients from Medellín and its surroundings were waiting for a place in an intensive care unit. And with the slow pace of vaccination across the region, he said, he expects the situation to worsen: “The fourth peak and the fifth peak will come.”

Central and Eastern Europe is home to half of the 20 countries with the most per capita deaths from Covid. Further east, an increase in cases in Turkey has triggered a new lockdown which began Thursday evening and will last for three weeks.

And in parts of Western Europe, high case rates have plateaued or have started to decline very slowly. New cases remain particularly high in France, the Netherlands and Sweden. The region was hit by a wave of new cases this spring amid a rise in variant B.1.1.7.

In una conferencia de prensa celebrada el jueves, Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the Organización Mundial de la Salud, expresó su agradecimiento por el gran apoyo internacional que ha recibido la India durante su crisis, que ha incluido dinero en efectivo y suministros medicos procedentes de everybody. “At the same time, we must remember that many other countries around the world continue to experience intense transmission,” Tedros said.

After briefly touching on the state of the virus in Brazil, which began to see deaths plummet after its worst days earlier this month, Tedros added: “The pandemic has taught us that no country can let its guard down.”

By Lazaro Gamio and Alexandria Symonds.