Paris (AFP)

Coronavirus contaminations continued to rebound in Europe this week, while remaining stable globally: here are the significant weekly developments, taken from an AFP database.

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

- Less than 400,000 daily cases -

With 382,983 contaminations recorded daily this week, the indicator stabilized (0%) compared to last week when it started to rise again after a halving between mid-January and mid-February, according to a AFP report stopped Thursday.

The indicator had been halved in one month, from 743,000 new daily cases (week of January 5 to 11) to 362,000 (week of February 12 to 18).

Never, since the start of the pandemic, has the number of contaminations experienced such a sharp and prolonged drop.

- Decline in North America, rebound in Europe -

The number of new infections has particularly decreased in North America (-20%, 61,608 daily cases), more slightly in Africa (-6%, 9,426) and in Asia (-4%, 31,406).

But contaminations increased in the Middle East (+ 10%, 31,324), in Europe (+ 8%, 157,760) and in Latin America (+ 3%, 91,409).

The United States remains the country with the most contaminations in the world (28,827,140) as well as deaths (520,356).

- Deaths decline -

The number of deaths fell by 7% to 62,055 victims over the past week, an average of 8,865 deaths per day.

This decrease occurred especially in North America (-20%) which recorded over the week a total of 12,282 deaths.

In Asia, the number of victims fell by 18% to 3,666 deaths over the week and in Africa it fell by 14% with a total of 2,151 weekly victims.

Europe, which pays the heaviest price with 22,795 weekly victims, however, shows a decline of 4% in its death toll.

This positive toll is obscured by an increase in deaths in the Middle East of 9% (1,824 weekly deaths) and in Latin America / Caribbean (+ 3%, 19,425 deaths).

- Strongest declines -

For the fourth consecutive week, the strongest decline of the week is observed in Portugal (-36%, 815 new cases per day), which is reaping the benefits of a confinement decreed on January 15.

The United Kingdom (-34%, 6,685), Spain (-25%, 4,487), Indonesia (-25%, 6,636) and Malaysia (-24%, 2,035) follow.

- Main accelerations -

With 86% increase in the number of contaminations (5,433 daily cases), Hungary is the country where the epidemic accelerated the most among those recording more than 1,000 daily contaminations during the past week.

The country had already seen a 69% increase in cases the previous week.

Other territories that recorded strong accelerations include the West Bank (+ 48%, 1,563 daily cases), Estonia (+ 44%, 1,502), Jordan (+ 41%, 4,726 cases) and Poland (+32 %, 11,058 cases).

© 2021 AFP