How COVID-19 is affecting the globe: Country profiles / The USA and Brazil represent together more than 40% of the cases around the world / Critical situation in Spain

The number of Covid-19 cases has surpassed 20 million worldwide according to AFP based on countries’ official numbers and their applied case definitions as of Tuesday, August 11.

More than 20 million cases have been reported across the globe, including 741,380 deaths. The United States and Brazil are the two worst-hit countries with 5 million and 3 million cases respectively, representing more than 4 cases out of 10. In both countries, nearly 500 in 1 million people died from Covid-19, ranking them among the top 10 countries’ cases per capita (see the list at the end of the article).

• In the US, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 40,522 diagnosed cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours with at least 565 deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, 162,407 people have died from the virus in the country and the increase shows no end in sight yet.

• In Brazil, the situation keeps worsening with 3 million cases (+55,000 cases on August 11 and +22,000 the day before) and 103,000 deaths (+1,242 in 24 hours) ministry figures indicate. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of Covid-19 cases in Brazil has followed an exponential curve, hitting especially the Brazil’s indigenous communities and the poorest citizens. However, the reality may be even more worrying as some searchers estimate the actual number of victims to be 6 times higher.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread in Latin America which has become the epicenter of the pandemic the World Health Organization (WHO) said. After Brazil, three other countries are among the worst-hit nations in the continent: Chile, Mexico and Peru

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• In Chile, the number of Covid-19 diagnosed cases surpassed 376,000 cases and 10,000 deaths. However, the number of daily cases is now slowly decreasing (+1,566 cases in 24 hours) pushing the government to start lifting the safety measures in the capital city.
• In Mexico, according to the ministry of health, 6,686 people tested positive to Covid-19 in 24 hours for a total number reaching 492,522. Until now nearly 54,000 deaths were reported, the 3^rd highest figure after Brazil and the US.
• Peru shows one of the most critical regional situation regarding the evolution of the pandemic. As of today, 5,109 new cases were registered with a total of 489,680 infections and 21,501 deaths. Peru has the 3^rd highest number of cases per capita after Belgium and the UK.

Spain has now the worst contagion figures in western Europe according to Le Monde. In three days 8,618 new infections have been reported, mostly in Aragon, Catalonia and Madrid. According to Fernando Simon, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts (CCAES), the transmission has begun to trudge downward but remains partially out of control as the authorities do not manage to trace the clusters.

On Monday, Romania included Spain to the “yellow” list before eventually removing it a few hours later for socio-economic reasons. On July 26, Scotland added Spain to the list of countries where returning travelers had to quarantine for 14 days and a week ago, the Belgian government decided to ban tourism to several regions of Spain. Since yesterday Germany has considered Madrid and the Basque Country hotspots. French, Italian, Norwegian authorities and others also urged people not to travel to Spain anymore. Latvia’s government has also decided to suspend air connections with Spain. Spain’s economy has been deeply affected by the devastation of the tourism sector due to the pandemic.

Beyond the focus on Spain these days, Europe has been overall facing a new surge in Covid-19 for a few weeks. Romania and Poland show one of the most critical situation of eastern Europe with a large surge in Covid-19 cases.

• Romania registered today a new record of coronavirus cases in 24 hours with 1,415 new infections and 43 deaths. 7,381 people are hospitalized, of which 485 in intensive care. The threshold of 65,000 cases in total has been exceeded. The Belgian authorities have banned travel to several parts of Romania from the center of the country, South-East, and South. The Swiss authorities apply compulsory quarantine for those arriving from Romania. Latvia has suspended air connections with Romania and Hungary added its neighbor on the “yellow list”. Denmark recommends avoiding travel to the country and closed its border to Romanians.
• In Poland, the number of daily cases has increased since the presidential elections was held early July. 551 news were diagnosed cases in 24 hours for a total of 53,676 infections and 1,830 deaths (+12). However, the national authorities said that imposing a new lockdown was out of the question.

• The United Kingdom faces in average 701 deaths for 1 million inhabitants, the 2^nd largest figure in the world after Belgium (865). At the time of writing, the cumulative total of UK cases stands at 311, 641 and 1,148 news cases confirmed in 24 hours, a record since June 21. Yet, it has to be mentioned that the way the statistics are reported by the UK authorities changed on July 17, tempering the relevance of numbers. Despite the spike in Covid-19 cases, Scottish children will return to education this week and the English ones in September.
• Germany’s response to the pandemic is often held up as a model in Europe for its containment efforts, reactivity and efficiency. Facing a virus’s resurgence (+1,184 cases), the government now allows the local authorities to impose a lockdown in case of Covid-19 spikes in order to be even more reactive. Since August 8, Germany has introduced mandatory coronavirus tests for travelers from high-risk countries and Germany extended yesterday travel warning to two more Spanish regions.
• In Belgium, 865 in 1,000,000 people died from Covid-19 which is the world’s largest number of cases per capita.
• France recorded nearly 1,400 new cases in the past 24 hours leading the French authorities to urge mayors to impose the masks in crowded spaces. For now, more than 1,400 towns and cities have taken this decision.
• In Greece, facing new surge in the virus’s spread, the authorities impose new restrictions on the main islands such as Mykonos, Paros and Halkidiki where bars will be closed at midnight and public events have been canceled.

Russia has managed to become the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the new coronavirus, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday. However, foreign scientists have expressed concern about the speed of development of such a vaccine and its efficiency. This vaccine will be put into circulation on January 1, 2021, according to the National Register of Medicines under the Russian Ministry of Health. Russia registered 5,102 new cases over the last 24 hours, taking its total to 902,701.

New-Zeeland, one of the top Covid-19 responding country, reported new cases after 102 days without any infections. Since the start of the pandemic, New Zeeland has been held up as a model by the WHO, reporting 1,575 cases and only 22 deaths. More than being helped by geography, the State has been really reactive by imposing one of the strictest lockdown in the world as soon as the first case was detected on February 28. Consequently, 9 out 10 inhabitants said they trusted their government compared to 59 percent average in the G7 countries.

In the wake of this reactivity, the authorities announced yesterday a new lockdown in the city of Auckland after a few cases were reported.

In Asia, India and Iran records an increasing number of victims. China and Japan face a resurgence. In Iran, the virus continues to spread among the population with 2,345 new Covid-19 cases and 184 deaths pushing the total of infections to 331,189 (18,800 deaths). According to the BBC, the number of deaths from the virus in Iran would be nearly triple what the government claims. Two days ago, the Iranian authorities closed the newspaper Jahane Sanat after it quoted an epidemiologist contesting the official data.

India registered 61,252 new cases on August 11. As of Tuesday, the country reported more than 2,3 million cases and 46,216 deaths.

Getting less media exposure, Africa is also deeply affected by the virus with more than 1 million cases. Half of them are located in South Africa (563,598).

Disclaimer: The given figures are only “confirmed cases” which is different from the actual number of cases. In fact, no country knows the number of people who got infected with coronavirus until now. The only data States have for now are the number of people who tested positive, implying that he number of confirmed cases is also linked to how much countries are testing.