The Arizona Republic

Virus cases, deaths surge worldwide

- Vanessa Gera ASSOCIATED PRESS

WARSAW, Poland – Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up fast. Pakistan is restrictin­g domestic travel to contain a surge in coronaviru­s infections. Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic better than many nations, is struggling to contain a new COVID-19 spike.

The only exceptions to the deteriorat­ing worldwide situation are countries that have advanced vaccinatio­n programs, mostly notably Israel and Britain. Even the U.S., which is a vaccinatio­n leader globally, is seeing a small uptick in new cases, and the White House announced Friday that it will send federal help to Michigan to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation transmissi­on rate.

The World Health Organizati­on said Friday that it’s concerned about infection rates that are rising in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many nations coming out of lockdown too soon.

“We’ve seen rises (in cases) worldwide for six weeks. And now, sadly, we are seeing rises in deaths for the last three weeks,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoma­n, said at a briefing in Geneva.

In its latest weekly epidemiolo­gical update, WHO collected over 4 million COVID-19 case reports in the last week. New deaths increased by 11% compared to the prior week, with over 71,000 reported.

The increasing infections, hospitaliz­ations and deaths extend to countries where vaccinatio­ns are finally gaining momentum. That leaves even bleaker prospects for much of the world, where large-scale vaccinatio­n programs remain a more distant prospect.

In Turkey, which is among the badly hit countries, most new cases of the virus can be traced to a variant first found in Britain.

Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Associatio­n, said the surge was beginning to strain the nation’s relatively advanced health care system and “the alarm bells are ringing” for intensive care units, which are not yet at full capacity.

“The mutant form of the virus is causing more harm to the organs,” Cinel said. “While 2 out of 10 patients were dying previously, the number is now 4 out of 10. And if we continue this way, we will lose six.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eased COVID-19 restrictio­ns in early March to minimize pain to his nation’s ailing economy. The new spike forced him to announce renewed restrictio­ns, such as weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurant­s during Ramadan, which starts April 13.

Turkish medical groups say the reopening in March was premature and that the new measures do not go far enough. They have been calling for full lockdowns during the holy Muslim month.

In the U.S. capital, President Joe Biden’s administra­tion outlined how the federal government planned to help Michigan better administer the doses already allocated to the state, as well as expand testing capacity and the availabili­ty of drugs.

The effort will not include any extra vaccine doses, a move Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought.

 ?? DAVID GANNON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES ?? With COVID-19 cases surging in Germany, a Berlin shop’s sign urges passersby to “Test, Mask, Distance.”
DAVID GANNON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES With COVID-19 cases surging in Germany, a Berlin shop’s sign urges passersby to “Test, Mask, Distance.”

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