Cases soar in countries that dodged first wave
As the novel coronavirus pandemic surges around the globe once again, some countries that avoided the worst of the first wave have seen a spike in cases for the first time.
The late surges are most acute in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, where countries praised for low case numbers over the summer are grappling with some of highest rates of infection in the world. Some countries in Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East have seen the same.
“Countries that have avoided the first waves have no reason to be complacent,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that some countries avoided the first wave of the 1918 flu pandemic only to be hit harder later. “It might be a cursed blessing.”
New daily cases reached a record 7,482 in Poland on Monday, as the government announced it would transform the National Stadium in Warsaw into a field hospital.
In the Czech Republic, where 5,059 new cases were recorded on Sunday, the health minister resigned last month and was replaced by epidemiologist Roman Primula, who has called on Czech doctors who work abroad to return home.
There would be a “significant increase in the number of hospitalizations, severe coronavirus cases, and deaths” in the coming weeks, Primula warned in an address to the nation last week.
Only a few months ago, Poland and the Czech Republic were seen as success stories: In June, the German newspaper Die Welt wrote that Poland had “stood firm while others have stumbled.” At the time, the country of 38 million had confirmed fewer than 23,000 cases.
In early July, despite warnings from the World Health Organization, thousands attended a party in Prague to say “farewell” to the virus, which at that point had caused around 12,000 infections in the country of 10 million.
Poland now has more than 183,000 confirmed cases, while the Czech Republic has around 174,000.
As of Monday, the Czech Republic had 492 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to a Washington Post analysis, suggesting one of the fastest escalating outbreaks in the world. Poland had 140 new cases per 100,000, higher than other global hot spots such as the United States and Spain.
Other nearby countries in Central and Eastern Europe were also seeing a wave of new cases for the first time, including Slovenia, one of the first countries to declare itself virus-free in May.
The virus has also spread widely for the first time over recent weeks in some countries in the Middle East. Jordan, in response to rising cases, imposed weekend curfews this month, and Lebanon shut bars and nightclubs.