Pandemic slows for sixth week globally

The Covid-19 pandemic slowed for a sixth week in a row around the world.

Here is the global state of play based on an AFP database.

Slowing down 

The number of new daily cases decreased by 7% globally to 422,400, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

The pandemic had gained ground since mid-June fanned by the highly contagious Delta variant which has become predominant in most countries. But for more than a month and a half now it has been in decline. 

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

Improvement in most regions

This week most of the regions of the world saw an improvement, with 32% less new cases in Africa, 20% less in Asia, 15% less in the Latin America and Caribbean zone, 11% less in the United States and Canada and 10% less in the Middle East.

But there was a 7% increase in Europe and 13% more in Oceania.

Biggest spikes 

Singapore, one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, saw the biggest spike in the number of new cases, with an 80% increase.

The Asian city-state was followed by a string of countries in Eastern Europe, with a 59% increase in Poland, 48% in Latvia, 40% in Ukraine and Romania and 28% more in Slovakia.

Eastern European countries have vaccinated their population at a slower rate than in Western Europe.

Biggest drops

At the other end of the spectrum, Japan saw the biggest drop with a 48% decrease in the number of cases, followed by Vietnam with 42% less, Morocco 40% less, Bangladesh 35% less and South Africa 33% less.

US has most infections 

The US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases, with 100,700 per day, a decrease of 11%. It was followed by the United Kingdom with 34,200 cases, a drop of 1%, and Turkey with 29,000, an increase of 5%.

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On a per-capita basis, the country that recorded the most new cases this week was again Serbia with 644 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Mongolia (463) and Romania (440).

And most deaths 

The US also recorded the biggest number of deaths per day at 1,782, followed by Russia with 899 and Mexico 517.

At a global level the number of daily deaths continued to drop to 7,185, a decrease of 7%.

Vaccinations 

Cuba leads the vaccination race among countries with more than one million inhabitants, inoculating 1.37% of its population every day.

New Zealand followed with 1.19%, South Korea with 1.12%, Australia 1.05%, Peru and Vietnam 1.03% each and Taiwan 1%.

The United Arab Emirates and Portugal however have the most advanced vaccination drives, with 85% of their populations being fully vaccinated.

They are followed by Spain 78%, Singapore 77%, Denmark and Uruguay 75% each, Ireland 74% and Belgium, Canada, France and Italy 73%.