Paris (AFP)

Contaminations by the new coronavirus have continued to surge in Europe over the past seven days, the Old Continent remaining the epicenter of the epidemic: here are the significant developments of the past week, observed from a database of the AFP.

An important indicator, however, the number of diagnosed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections and comparisons between countries should be taken with a grain of salt, as testing policies differ from one country to another.

- Strong acceleration in Europe -

The pandemic has accelerated significantly this week, with 476,000 new cases recorded per day in the world (a record), or 20% more than the previous week, according to a report established by AFP on Friday at 11:00 GMT.

It is again in Europe that the rate of contamination is accelerating the most (+ 40%).

With 241,000 new daily cases (a figure which has been multiplied by 16 compared to some 15,000 at the beginning of July), the Old Continent is by far the region recording the most contaminations, ahead of the United States / Canada (80,000 per day, + 27%).

The trend is also accelerating in the Middle East (+ 13%) and Latin America / Caribbean (+ 3%).

The situation is improving slightly in Africa (-2%), more markedly in Asia (-15%) and Oceania (-20%).

- Main accelerations -

Croatia is the country where the epidemic is accelerating the most (+ 90%, 2,000 new cases per day), among those having recorded more than 1,000 daily cases during the past week.

Austria (+ 89%, 3,200), Slovenia (+ 88%, 1,900), Switzerland (+ 87%, 6,800), Sweden (+ 86%, 1,700), Bosnia and Herzegovina (+ 83%) follow , 1,300), Bulgaria (+ 80%, 1,700), Italy (+ 79%, 21,600) and Germany (+ 75%, 12,700).

All from European countries.

- Strongest declines -

The sharpest decline is observed in Israel (-54%, 600 new cases per day), a country recently released from containment, ahead of Nepal (-39%, 2,300), Ireland (-28%, 800), which reconfigured last week, India (-17%, 47,600) and the Philippines (-14%, 1,900).

- The most contaminations -

The United States is the country with the highest number of new infections this week, with 77,200 new daily cases, ahead of India (47,600) and France (40,500).

While the trend is improving in India (-17%), it is deteriorating in the United States (+ 27%) and especially in France (+ 50%).

Brazil (24,400, + 11%), the United Kingdom (22,100, + 13%), Italy (21,600, + 79%) and Spain (19,100, + 28%) follow.

As a proportion of the population, excluding micro-states, Belgium has recorded the most cases (992 per 100,000 inhabitants) this week, ahead of the Czech Republic (818) and Luxembourg (643).

Of the 24 countries with an incidence rate above 200, 22 are European.

- Death -

The United States has recorded the most deaths in the past week (809 per day), ahead of India (559), Brazil (438), Mexico (411), Argentina (355), l 'Iran (352), Russia (294) and France (259).

- Global report -

The pandemic has killed at least 1.182 million people worldwide since the end of December, for more than 45.1 million confirmed infections.

The United States remains the most bereaved country with at least 228,675 dead, ahead of Brazil (158,969 dead) and India (121,090).

© 2020 AFP