Paris (AFP)

The milestone of one million cases of Covid-19 officially declared in the world was crossed Thursday, with, over the last weeks, a clear acceleration of contaminations and deaths which testifies to the exponential progression of the pandemic.

What do the most recent figures say?

At least 1,000,036 cases of infection, including 51,718 deaths, have been detected in 188 countries and territories, according to a report Thursday at 19:00 GMT.

In the past 7 days, as many new cases have been diagnosed worldwide as in the previous 86 days. The number of deaths recorded has doubled since March 27. To date, at least 186,000 patients are considered cured.

But the data published all over the world, both in terms of cases and of deaths, are far from exactly reflecting reality.

Many countries only test patients in serious condition - some like Finland themselves recognize that their balance sheets are largely undervalued, with an actual number of cases in the country that could be up to 30 times higher. With regard to deaths, some states do not include, for example, deaths in retirement homes.

But the growth in numbers shows the dramatic spread of the disease across the planet.

With 542,191 cases recorded including 37,715 deaths (respectively 54% and 73% of the world totals), Europe, which counted still less than 10,000 cases on March 7, is today the main focus of the pandemic.

The progression has been meteoric in recent weeks: in a little over ten days, the number of deaths has multiplied by 7, to exceed 37,000 on April 2.

But it is now also in the United States, which became the most affected country in the world on March 27 in number of cases.

The United States, which officially counted only 68 contaminations on March 2, now records more than 234,000. Since March 28, in just five days, these cases identified in the country have doubled.

The number of deaths follows a similar trend: the United States recorded its first death on March 1 and today deplores 5,607. This number has doubled in the last 3 days.

Bruised Italy and Spain

Only Italy and Spain display a heavier toll to date in terms of deaths.

Italy (115,242 cases, 13,915 deaths) and Spain (110,238, 10,003) are also with the United States the countries with more reported cases than in China, the initial focus of the contagion where official figures show a sharp slowdown for more than a month (81,589 cases including 3,318 deaths in total, 31 only in the past week).

Out of 100 deaths in Europe, almost 36 are now recorded in Italy and 27 in Spain.

In these two countries, measures to contain the population seem to be starting to bear fruit, however, with a slowdown in the progression of the epidemic. With a 15% increase in the number of cases each day two weeks ago, Italy has recorded for several days rates of increase of less than 5%. Since 24 hours, only 18 additional patients have been admitted to intensive care in the country.

Spain sees around 8% more cases every day, far less than the 15 to 20% counted last week.

In Europe and elsewhere in the world, the other countries most affected are France (73,743 cases and 5,387 deaths, with an assessment now including cases in retirement homes), Iran (50,468, 3,160), the United Kingdom (33.718, 2.921), the Netherlands (14.697, 1.339), Belgium (15.348, 1.011), Germany (73.522, 872), Switzerland (18.194, 431) and Turkey (18.135, 356).

Africa, despite its population of 1.3 billion inhabitants, currently lists only 6,804 cases for 273 deaths. The only continent with fewer cases is Oceania (5,949 cases for 27 deaths).

The Latin American and Caribbean region crossed the 20,000-case mark on Wednesday, reaching 23,133 on Thursday, including 653 deaths. The Middle East recorded 64,083 cases including 3,306 deaths and the whole of Asia 112,356 cases including 4,003 deaths.

These assessments were carried out using data collected by AFP offices from the competent national authorities and information from WHO.

© 2020 AFP