Here in the UK, we are almost into month five of lockdown from Covid-19, which spread from a seafood market in Wuhan to virtually every country in the world.
In this article, we provide a world view of what impact the disease is having in the present across countries at the highest stages of outbreak severity.
There are currently 10.3million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the world, where 5.21million people have recovered from the virus, and 504k fatalities.
It should be said that recovery rate data is not available from certain countries and so this figure is most probably higher than stated.
The top 5 countries in the world with Covid-19 confirmed cases are the US, Brazil, Russia, India and the UK.
US
The US have had 2.64million confirmed cases where 128k have unfortunately died from the virus.
As of today, 16 US states have halted their reopening plans as 36 states have seen an increase in confirmed cases compared to the previous week.
The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday that the pandemic is far from over and is ‘actually speeding up.’
Florida, Texas and Arizona are the worst affected states; beaches have been closed for the upcoming holiday weekend in Florida.
Coronavirus task force member Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield, and other top government health officials will testify before a Senate Committee on Tuesday on the latest efforts by the US government to contain the pandemic.
Dr Fauci said: “We’re going to be doing more testing, not less” in response to President Donald Trump’s recent claim that he asked his administration to slow down testing during the pandemic.
Brazil
Brazil has had 1.37million confirmed cases where 58,385 have died.
Yesterday, President Bolsonaro was the subject of revolt in Brazil as protesters gathered to denounce the president’s handling of the virus.
Last week, the country recorded its worst week in terms of new cases of 259,105 and its second highest weekly death toll of 7,005.
The protest named ‘Stop Bolsonaro’ has been staged online and on the streets in Brazil’s main cities, as well as in 20 other countries, demanding the president’s resignation.
The president has previously been quoted as describing Covid-19 as a ‘little flu’ and has continued to deny the evident impact of the disease on the country.
Experts have claimed that the actual number of infections in the country is probably higher than those stated figures.
Some local authorities are reopening their economies despite the virus being evidently not under control.
Russia
Russia has had 648k confirmed cases with 9,320 deaths, where the recovery rate is stated as being 413k – much higher than any other country has reported in relation to confirmed cases.
Mikhail Shchelkanov, who heads the Far Eastern Federal University’s school of biomedicine said a second wave of coronavirus could hit major cities in European Russia as soon as two weeks from now.
The virus could also hit Russia’s Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok through Chinese citizens returning home from other countries.
India
It was reported earlier today that India is to hold a human trial of coronavirus vaccine in July this year. The country has had 567k confirmed cases with 16,893 deaths.
Volunteers in India will be immunised with a new locally made coronavirus vaccine with an unspecified amount of people taking part.
The trial is being conducted by Hyderabad-based firm Bharat Biotech and the vaccine has been tested in animals and regarded as being safe as well as triggering an effective immune response.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country’s Covid-19 death rate is under control, but that the country is at a ‘critical juncture.’
The country has tested almost 9million samples for Covid-19 according to data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Lockdown measures have been tightened in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.
UK
The UK has had 312k confirmed cases with 43,575 deaths. The UK recovery rate is unavailable.
It has been reported today that the UK economy has been hit by the worst contraction in 41 years due to Covid.
The economy contracted by 2.2% between January and March as Covid started to take hold; the worst contraction since 1979.
Recent ONS monthly figures showed the economy plummeted by 20.4% in April – the largest drop in a single month since records began.
Today, Boris Johnson unveiled the post-lockdown recovery plan as Leicester tightens its lockdown.
The Mayor of Leicester has called for more data from the government on Covid testing.
Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby told reporters:
“I told him (Boris Johnson) it would actually be enormously helpful to have, amongst the data that was collected as part of the testing process, the ethnicity of the people that were tested and where it is available, and where it is appropriate, their place of work.
“I think he took that point. Certainly, in a city like Leicester, it’s important to know whether it’s particular neighbourhoods or communities being affected.
“Knowing the address is important, knowing the ethnicity is certainly something that may give you a clue as to how the spread has taken place, and if there is a place of work. Those pieces of information help us to pinpoint where the issues might be.”
Downing Street has been unable to say whether the Prime Minister has met his pledge to complete Covid-19 tests within 24 hours by the end of June.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said:
“We said that was something that we wanted to achieve by the end of the month and we’re talking to Department of Health and Social Care about how we can make that data available.
“We’ve been working to turn around those test results as quickly as possible.”
