A woman is vaccinated on April 15 in Richmond, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
More people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past seven days than any other week since the start of the pandemic – which ranks 5.2 million worldwide – with the worst outbreaks accelerating in many countries not equipped to deal with it .
The worrying trend, a few days after the world surpassed 3 million deaths, comes as countries launch vaccinations to get the virus under control. Johns Hopkins University data showing a 12% increase in infections from a week earlier casts doubt on the hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight.
The weekly increase surpasses the previous high that was mid-December. While infection rates in the US and the UK have largely declined, countries in the developing world – particularly India and Brazil – have a rising impact.
Worrying characters
New infections worldwide have reached a record high despite the rollout of the vaccine
Source: Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg, from 9 a.m. HKT on April 19th
The global death toll is also regaining momentum. The death toll has increased over the past month, reaching about 82,000 in the week ending April 18, averaging nearly 12,000 a day. It has risen from just over 60,000 in the week ended March 14, or about 8,600 per day, the most recent nadir.
India and Brazil are the two biggest contributors to driving business worldwide – a race that neither of them wants to win. Facing a sudden increase in coronavirus infections, India is again home to the world’s second largest outbreak, which overtakes Brazil after the latter continued in March. Hospitals from Mumbai on Sao Paulo is under increasing pressure as admissions continue to increase.
Residents are waiting in an observation area after receiving Covid-19 vaccines in Richmond, California on April 15.
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
India and Brazil have so far administered doses equivalent to 4.5% and 8.3% of their population, respectively, compared to 33% for the US and 32% in the UK, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine dop.
Serious setbacks
But not only developing countries have seen recent setbacks in their efforts to tackle the pandemic. Rare cases of clotting are seen in people who have taken vaccines Johnson & Johnson en AstraZeneca Plc has fueled skepticism about vaccines facing governments worldwide.
New variants of the virus have also caused infections to rise further. Brazil is the site where one of the most deadly coronavirus mutations, the P.1 variant, was identified in December. Studies suggest that these strains – along with variants first seen in South Africa and the United Kingdom – are more contagious.
(Add weekly mortality rates in the fourth paragraph)