Although India’s numbers continue to fall to levels seen almost two years ago, the seven-day average of global cases has been rising for over two weeks. According to Worldometers.info, there has been a 5% increase in infections in the last seven days compared to the previous week.
On Thursday, South Korea reported a record 6.2 lakh new cases in a country of 50 million, the highest single-day tally of any country except the US. South Korea has reported 2.4 million cases in the last seven days, ahead of Germany (15 lakh), Vietnam (12 lakh), France (5.2 lakh) and the UK (4.8 lakh).
In China, for the first time since the initial Covid wave centered around Wuhan, daily cases surpassed 3,000 in the Omicron-led outbreak, which has placed 30 million people under lockdown.
Experts fear the wave could travel to the US, one of the few countries with a sharp rise in deaths from Omicron infections. The US reported a peak of more than 3,500 deaths a day during the Omicron boom in January this year, the highest daily toll from the pandemic since the country was vaccinated in January 2021.
In Hong Kong, another place where Omicron deaths have been high, agencies reported that the morgue had run out of space and the bodies of coronavirus victims were placed in refrigerated shipping containers and the city’s remaining 300 coffins were expected to be moved by the weekend. Was expected.
The World Health Organization’s DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the rise in global cases was “just the tip of the iceberg”, especially since testing was reduced in many parts of the world.
In addition to Germany, France and the UK, other countries in Western Europe in the midst of a second Omicron wave include the Netherlands, where cases were now starting to drop, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Australia, which has followed strict COVID restrictions, saw a 26% increase in cases over the past seven days.
Globally, 11.5 million (11 million) new cases were reported in the last seven days, up from 10.9 million in the past seven days. At the peak of the Omicron wave on January 24, that number exceeded 24 million.
Currently, virus deaths continue to decline, but as cases rise, the toll is likely to rise.