Worldwide Covid-19 infections may be levelling off again
The World Health Organisation said this week that Covid-19 may be plateauing worldwide after 2 months of steady increases. The global Covid-19 totals saw 4.5 million new infections and 68,000 new deaths this week, stats that reveal only a marginal increase over last week’s totals of 4.4 million infections and 66,000 deaths.
According to the WHO’s epidemiological update, the worldwide Covid-19 totals have now topped 211 million infections and more than 4.4 million deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The weekly figures have been climbing steadily since the middle of June but now finally appear to be stabilizing. The last time Covid-19’s infections numbers seemed to be levelling off was about 3 months ago in May when things were looking up. Unfortunately in April the much more contagious Delta variant emerged and by June the highly transmissible strain had made it’s way around the world and now continues to spread worldwide.
Regionally, Southeast Asia’s overall numbers have seen a slow decline of Covid-19 infections, despite the worst outbreaks Thailand and Vietnam have experienced since the start of the pandemic currently pummelling both nations. Vietnam recently implemented an extreme lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city in the country, with 9 million people forbidden from leaving their homes and the military delivering food and supplies.
Despite those surges, Southeast Asia saw infections decline, and the Eastern Mediterranean region saw a similar decrease in Covid-19 infections numbers reported. Most other regions in the world saw the number of Covid-19 infections hold mostly steady.
But some countries are still on the rise with the US up 15% to 1.02 million cases, the vast majority of severe cases from people who declined vaccination. Iran, India, Brazil, and the United Kingdom also saw high numbers. The Western Pacific region saw a 20% jump mostly due to big Delta variant spikes in Australia, and the Americas overall climbed 8%.
SOURCE: CNN
