Paris (AFP)

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to accelerate this week in all regions of the world, except Latin America: 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.

- More than 600,000 daily cases -

With 612,000 contaminations recorded daily in the world this week, the indicator has accelerated (+ 6% compared to the previous week), according to an AFP report stopped on Thursday.

The pandemic has been gaining ground again since mid-June, fueled by a very contagious Delta variant and which has become the majority in many countries.

- Damage almost everywhere -

This week, only the Latin America / Caribbean area saw its situation improve, with 13% fewer new cases compared to the previous week.

Covid-19: trends in the world AFP

The pandemic accelerated in all the other regions: + 44% in the United States / Canada zone, + 20% in Oceania, + 11% in the Middle East, + 6% in Asia, + 3% in Europe and +1 % in Africa.

- Stronger acceleration -

Israel is the country where the epidemic accelerated the most (+ 101%, 3,000 new cases per day), among those having recorded at least 1,000 daily infections during the past week.

Israel, which is among the most vaccinated countries in the world and which has started administering third doses to seniors, had seen its incidence rate drop below 10 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the spring.

The indicator has now risen to 243.

Japan (+ 97%, 11,200), which currently hosts Olympic Games without spectators, follows, Turkey (+ 56%, 26,000), Pakistan (+ 54%, 4,800) and Morocco (+ 49%, 8,400 ).

- Strongest declines -

Conversely, it is Zimbabwe (-46%, 1,100 new cases per day) which recorded the sharpest decline this week, ahead of the Netherlands (-44%, 3,000), Brazil (-28% , 32,500), Rwanda (-27%, 800) and Colombia (-26%, 7,800).

- The most contaminations -

The United States is the country with the highest number of new infections in absolute terms this week (96,800 daily cases, + 44%), ahead of India (40,600, + 5%) and Indonesia (33,900, - 20%).

In proportion to the population, the country with the most new cases this week remains the archipelago of Fiji (824 per 100,000 inhabitants), ahead of Georgia (575) and Cuba (565).

Fiji is banking on vaccination to stem the epidemic, as the country has made vaccination compulsory for both public and private employees.

But so far, only half of the population has received at least one dose and 12% are fully vaccinated.

- Death -

Indonesia records the highest number of daily deaths, with 1,689 deaths per day this week, ahead of Brazil (887) and Russia (790).

Globally, daily deaths increased this week (9,382 per day, + 5%).

- Japan is vaccinating at full speed -

Japan is this week the fastest vaccinating country among those with more than one million people, administering doses to 1.77% of its population each day.

Next come Panama (1.72%), Sri Lanka (1.70%), Malaysia (1.61%), Ecuador (1.26%), China (1.22%) and Saudi Arabia (1.15%).

If they now vaccinate more slowly, the United Arab Emirates (172 doses administered per 100 inhabitants), Israel, Canada, Singapore and Chile (133 doses each), Denmark (130), Belgium (128) and the United Kingdom United (126) are among the countries with the most advanced vaccination campaigns.

This indicator can exceed 100 doses per 100 inhabitants since most vaccines in circulation require two doses to be fully effective.

© 2021 AFP