5.2mn Covid cases, 12k deaths: World sees worst week so far
India and Brazil are bearing the brunt as the virus continues to roil continents
WASHINGTON/LONDON: More people were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the past seven days than any other week since the start of the pandemic - topping 5.2 million globally - with the worst outbreaks accelerating in many countries that are illequipped to deal with them.
The worrisome trend, just days after the world surpassed 3 million deaths, comes as countries are rolling out vaccinations in an effort to get the virus under control. The data from Johns Hopkins University showing a 12% increase in infections from a week earlier casts doubt on the hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight.
The weekly increase surpassed the previous high set in mid-December. While infection rates have largely slowed in the US and UK, countries in the developing world - India and Brazil in particular - are shouldering surging caseloads.
The global death toll is also resuming momentum. Fatalities have increased for the past month and were about 82,000 the week ended April 18, an average of almost 12,000 a day. That’s up from just over 60,000 in the week ended March 14, or about 8,600 a day, the most recent nadir.
India and Brazil have so far administered doses equivalent to cover 4.5% and 8.3% of their populations respectively, compared with 33% for US and 32% in UK, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.
But it’s not just developing nations that have seen recent setbacks in their efforts to tackle the pandemic. Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said the Japanese prefecture will formally decide on Tuesday to make a request to the central government to declare a state of emergency over the virus.
Meanwhile, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said on Sunday evening that she had instructed officials to consider a state of emergency as an option to contain the virus, public broadcaster NHK reported.
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday he’ll deploy additional healthcare workers and equipment to help Ontario, the country’s most populous province, which is struggling to contain a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.
The move follows Ontario premier Doug Ford’s decision on Friday to impose some of North America’s toughest restrictions to get a handle on the region’s third wave of the pandemic that threatens to overwhelm its health-care system.
Oxford study to reinfect recovered patients
People who have fought off Covid-19 will be reinfected in a firstof-its-kind trial at University of Oxford, potentially illuminating how to develop more effective vaccines against the virus.
Researchers are looking for 64 healthy, previously-infected volunteers aged 18 to 30 year to be studied under controlled, quarantined conditions for at least 17 days, the university said. They’ll be infected with the original strain from Wuhan and followed for a year.