The Covid-19 pandemic took a turn for the worse this week after five weeks of improvement, driven by an upsurge of cases in Asia.
Here is the state of play based on AFP’s database: – Eight percent rise – The average number of global daily cases increased over the week by eight percent to 1.59 million, according to an AFP tally to Thursday. That is, however, half the number in late January, when cases peaked at 3.37 million per day.
The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries. – Asia, Oceania drive upsurge – Asia and Oceania remain pandemic hotspots, with 27 percent and 20 percent more new cases respectively compared to the previous week. There was also a slight uptick in Africa, which saw a three percent rise, and in Europe where the number of cases increased by one percent. The situation, however, continued to improve in the United States-Canada zone which recorded a 30 percent drop, in the middle East (down 27 percent).—APP
