- Advertisement -
World

Pandemic upsurge goes on, but deaths fall by a fifth

Laos recorded the biggest new case increase with 151% over the week, followed by Ireland with 52% more, South Korea 47%, and Finland 44%.

AFP
2 minute read
Share
This photo taken on March 17 shows a staff member wearing personal protective equipment walking at the Fire Eye laboratory, a temporary Covid-19 coronavirus testing facility, before it opens in Yantai in China's eastern Shandong province. Photo: AFP
This photo taken on March 17 shows a staff member wearing personal protective equipment walking at the Fire Eye laboratory, a temporary Covid-19 coronavirus testing facility, before it opens in Yantai in China's eastern Shandong province. Photo: AFP

The Covid-19 pandemic continued its resurgence this week, in particular in Asia and Europe, but the number of related global deaths plunged by a fifth.

Here is the state of play based on AFP’s database:

12% rise in cases

The average number of global daily cases increased over the week by 12% to 1.8 million, after taking a new turn for the worse the week before, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

Western European countries are seeing a rebound, including France, where the number of cases increased 35%, while Italy and Britain were up 42% each.

In Asia, several countries beat their own records, including South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.

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

Regional differences

The pandemic’s upturn is being driven by Oceania, where the number of new cases increased by 86% compared to the previous week. They also increased 23% in Asia and 7% in Europe.

However, the situation continues to greatly improve in Africa, where the numbers dropped 56%.

In the Middle East, cases declined by 26%, while the Latin America-Caribbean zone saw a fifth fewer cases and the US-Canada zone registered a 12% drop.

Main spikes

Laos recorded the biggest new case increase with 151% over the week, followed by Ireland with 52% more, South Korea 47%, and Finland 44%.

South Korea has most cases

By head of population South Korea recorded the biggest number of new cases this week, with 5,288 per 100,000 people.

Austria followed with 3,484, New Zealand (2,706), Cyprus (2,613) and the Netherlands (2,504).

Deaths continue to decline

The number of Covid-linked deaths continued to decline, shrinking 20% to an average of 5,401 a day.

The decline was reflected in all regions of the world.

Hong Kong reported by far the highest death rate in proportion to population with 26.49 per 100,000 inhabitants.

It was followed at a distance by Latvia with 4.61, Denmark 4.33, Slovakia 4.08 and Chile 3.76.