Official COVID-19 cases topped 200 million worldwide

Worldwide coronavirus cases topped 200 million on Wednesday, according to a statement from the agency Reuters, when Delta variant threatens areas with low vaccination rates. Cases are on the rise in at least 83 of 240 countries, according to the analysis, straining health systems.

“While we desperately want to end this pandemic, it is clear that COVID-19 has not ended us. This is why our fight should last a little longer, ”the doctor had already declared this week. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 2.6% of the world’s population has been infected, Yes the actual figure is probably higher due to limited testing in many places. If the number of infected were a country, it would be the eighth most populous in the world, behind Nigeria, according to the analysis.

According to the analysis, It took over a year for the number of COVID-19 cases to reach 100 million, while the next 100 million took just over six months. The pandemic has killed at least 4.4 million people.

Countries reporting the most cases in seven days on average -United States, Brazil, Indonesia, India and Iran- account for around 38% of all cases worldwide notified daily.

Increase in Asia

Southeast Asian countries are also reporting an increase in cases. With only 8% of the world’s population, region reports nearly 15% of all daily cases, according to an analysis of Reuters.

After suffering its worst outbreak in April and May, India is again recording an upward trend in cases. Last Friday, the country notified 44,230 new cases of COVID-19, the highest number in three weeks, raising fears of a third wave of infections.

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared at the end of 2019, will test its 12 million inhabitants for the coronavirus after confirming its first local cases of the Delta variant. The city had not reported any community cases since mid-May last year.

Delta variant upsets all assumptions about the virus, with disease experts scrambling to find out if the latest version of the coronavirus it makes people, especially unvaccinated people, sicker than before.

Dr Gregory Poland, vaccine specialist at the Mayo Clinic, noted that current doses block disease, but not infection because the virus continues to replicate in the nose.

“The vaccines we have now will not be the end,” he said. “Now we find ourselves in a scenario of our own making, in which it will take years or decades to overcome. And we’re going to chase the tail with variants until we get a type of vaccine that offers abilities to block infection and disease, ”he concluded.

(With information from Reuters)

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