the surge in cases continued this week around the world

The Covid-19 pandemic continued its outbreak this week all over the world, except in Africa, the first region to see its contaminations decrease after the Omicron wave: here are the significant weekly developments, from an AFP database .

Important indicator, the number of cases diagnosed only reflects a fraction of the real number of contaminations and comparisons between countries should be taken with caution, as testing policies differ greatly from one country to another.

For statistics by country, the analysis is limited to those with at least 500,000 inhabitants whose incidence rate exceeds 50 weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

– Nearly 2.8 million daily cases –

With a new record of 2.78 million contaminations recorded every day worldwide, the indicator jumped again this week (+44% compared to the previous week), according to an AFP report stopped on Thursday.

– Almost all regions concerned –

While the highly contagious Omicron variant is now present in most countries, contaminations are soaring in almost all regions: in Asia (+210%), in the Middle East (+142%), in the Latin America zone. /Caribbean (+126%), in Oceania (+59%), in the United States/Canada zone (+31%) and in Europe (+25%).

Only Africa, where the Omicron variant struck first, saw its situation improve (-11%).

– Main accelerations –

The Philippines (+327% compared to the previous week, 29,100 new daily cases) is the country that recorded the biggest acceleration of the week.

Next come India (+321%, 172,700), Kosovo (+312%, 300), Brazil (+290%, 61,100) and Peru (284%, 20,600).

– Decline in Southern Africa –

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) is for the second consecutive week the country having recorded the largest weekly decline (-45%, 100), ahead of Zambia (-30%, 2,500), South Africa (-27% , 6,000), Namibia (-26%, 400) and the United Kingdom (-25%, 136,100).

The first four countries, located in southern Africa, were among the first to be hit by the Omicron wave in early December, while the United Kingdom was the first country affected in Europe in the following weeks.

– The most contamination –

The United States remains, by far, the country having recorded the highest number of new contaminations in absolute value this week (796,500 daily cases, +34%), ahead of France (293,900, +43%) and India ( 172,700, +321%).

In proportion to the population, the country with the most new cases this week is Ireland (3,087 per 100,000 inhabitants), ahead of France (3,047), Cyprus (2,993), Denmark and Montenegro (2,490 each).

– Death –

Globally, the number of daily deaths rose sharply this week (+ 12%), to 6,911 deaths per day, after weeks of decline.

The United States has the highest number of daily deaths in absolute value, 1,792 per day this week, ahead of Russia (765) and Poland (301).

In proportion to the population, the countries having recorded the most deaths over the past week remain Trinidad and Tobago (10.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), ahead of Bulgaria (7.7), Georgia (6, 9), Croatia (5.9) and Poland (5.6).

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