AFP :
The rate of new Covid-19 infections has slowed by nearly half over the past month, according to a specialized AFP database, with the number of new cases dropping again this week.
Over the past month, the number of new cases around the world has dropped by 44.5%, the biggest and most sustained plunge since the pandemic started, according to an AFP tally.
The number of new Covid-19 cases continued the fall last week, with 412,700 recorded on average a day.
That contrasts with the record of 743,000 new daily cases recorded in the week of January 5 to 11. New infections now stand at their lowest level since October.
Epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, director of the University of Geneva’s Global Health Institute, said “more or less everywhere in the world there has been a relative decline in the epidemic.”
But he told AFP there was a risk of a rebound if governments repeat “past mistakes” pointing to the consequences of lifting lockdowns too early last summer in Europe.
The coronavirus has killed at least 2,395,911 and infected 108,808,074 worldwide since emerging in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally on Saturday at 1100 GMT based on official sources.
Every region of the world has benefited from the slowdown over last week, the AFP tally up to Thursday found.
The number of new cases decreased by 24% in the United States and Canada, by 20% in Africa, 18% in Asia, 15% in Europe, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean and by 2% in the Middle East. The virus is almost absent in Oceania, where there are just 12 cases a day.
The number of confirmed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, as different countries have different counting practices and levels of testing.
This week the two biggest falls were in countries living under lockdown. In Portugal new cases plunged by 54% and Israel they were down 39%.
The Jewish state, which started to wind down its lockdown on Sunday, also boasts the world’s fastest vaccination program — 44% of its population has already received one dose and 28% have received two doses.
