Pandemic continues to slow

The coronavirus pandemic slowed for a seventh week in a row around the world.

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

In decline

The number of new daily cases decreased by five percent globally to 403,300, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

The pandemic had gained ground since mid-June fanned by the highly contagious Delta variant, but since late August it has been in decline.

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

Europe bucks trend

This week saw an improvement in most regions of the world, with 23 percent fewer cases in Africa, 21 percent fewer in Latin America and the Caribbean, 19 percent fewer in the Middle East, 16 percent fewer in Asia and 14 percent fewer in the United States and Canada region.

Europe, however, bucked the trend with a 13 percent rise, while the number of cases increased by 11 percent in Oceania.

Biggest spikes

Georgia, where only 27 percent of the population has received one vaccine dose, saw the biggest spike in the number of new cases, with a 79 percent increase.

Beyond the Caucasus, the week’s biggest increases took place in Europe, with cases rising by half in Ireland, and 49 percent in the Netherlands, where more than 66 percent of the population has already received two vaccine doses. Cases increased by 42 percent in Poland and Latvia.

Biggest drops

At the other end of the spectrum, Israel saw the biggest drop with a 48 percent decrease in the number of cases, followed by Cuba (32 percent fewer), Guatemala (31 percent down), Costa Rica (29 percent down) and Vietnam, where cases were down by a quarter.

US has most infections…

The US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases, with 86,800 per day, a decrease of 14 percent. It was followed by the United Kingdom with 38,700, a 13 percent increase, and Turkey 30,500, an increase of five percent.

On a per capita basis the country that recorded the most new cases this week was Latvia with 623 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, before Serbia (598) and Georgia (585).

… and most deaths

The US also recorded the biggest number of deaths per day at 1,563, followed by Russia with 967, and Mexico 350.

At a global level the number of daily deaths continued to fall to 6,741, a drop of six percent.

Vaccinations

Cuba leads the vaccination race among countries with more than one million inhabitants, inoculating 1.92 percent of its population every day.

Iran followed with 1.57 percent, New Zealand with 1.46 percent, Lebanon (1.24 percent), South Korea (1.22 percent) and Vietnam (1.20 percent).

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