PARIS, March 19 — The number of new cases of Covid-19 continued to rise around the world again this week, but remained far from the record level struck in early January, according to AFP data.
Here is the state of play worldwide:
Cases increase 14 per cent
The number of new cases increased by 14 per cent around the world, to 465,300 on average every day, according to an AFP tally yesterday.
The increase confirms an upward trend which started a month ago, after an unprecedented fall earlier in the year when the number of new cases was cut by half.
Despite the increase over the past weeks, the number of infections is still far from the record of 743,600 new cases in the week of January 5-11.
The number of confirmed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, as different countries have varying counting practices and levels of testing.
Whole world affected
Africa and the Middle East were alone this week in seeing their number of new cases stabilise. All other regions saw increases, led by Asia with 34 per cent, 18 per cent in Europe, 15 per cent in the United States and Canada and five per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The number of new cases spiralled in Oceania by 75 per cent due to an upsurge in Papua New Guinea. Covid-19 is largely absent from the rest of the region.
Biggest spikes
On a country level, Bangladesh is the country where the epidemic is picking up most speed, with 92 per cent more new cases, or 1,500 per day, among nations that recorded more than 1,000 daily cases over the past week.
Moldova follows with 78 per cent, or 1,800 more cases, Ukraine (55 per cent, 11,200 cases), Pakistan (52 per cent more or 2,600 cases) and the Philippines (52 per cent, 4,800).
Steepest falls
The biggest decrease this week was seen in Israel, the country which has the led the most advanced vaccination campaign in the world, and where the number of new cases dropped by 44 per cent to 1,700 per day.
The other countries recording the biggest drops are the United Arab Emirates (minus 24 per cent, 1,900 cases), Malaysia (20 per cent less or 1,300 cases), Mexico (19 per cent less or 4,500 cases) and Kuwait (minus 17 per cent, 1,100 cases).
Brazil has most new infections, deaths
Brazil recorded both the most new cases and deaths this week with 71,900 new infections, a four per cent increase, and 2,087 deaths per day.
It is followed by the US which had 64,500 cases, an increase of 15 per cent, and 1,242 deaths per day.
In terms of cases France recorded 27,300 per day or 24 per cent more, India 27,000, an increase of 47 per cent and Italy 22,500, or five per cent more.
On a per capita basis Estonia is the country which registered the most cases this week, with 760 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In terms of deaths Mexico follows Brazil and the United States with 495 deaths, Russia (441) and Italy (382).
At a world level the number of deaths increased by two per cent this week to 8,800 per day, a level still far from the toll of late January when casualties skirted 15,000 per day. — AFP
