International policy updates

Global

Europe

  • Some very good dogs: Finland began offering coronavirus tests for passengers at Helsinki’s airport, conducted by canine specialists that have been trained to sniff out SARS-CoV-2.
  • The regional government of Madrid said it would request “urgent military and logistics” support from the central government to carry out tasks like setting up emergency tents for the homeless and disinfecting public areas as it battles a fresh wave of the virus.
  • This week Dr Rudolf Henke, Member of the Health Committee at the German Bundestag, attended the House of Lords public committee on what measures Germany had undertaken to prevent coronavirus deaths. Dr Henke suggested that key to the German response was regional autonomy on devolved matters such as health, and effective co-ordination with central government, early testing of the wider population,
  • France set a new record of daily COVID-19 infections on Thursday, the fourth in eight days, while the number of people hospitalised for the disease went above 6,000 for the first time in more than two months.

Middle East

  • Iran could anticipate a “third wave” as the death total surpasses 25,000, the highest in the Middle East, President Rouhani is considering reimposing restrictions.
  • Saudi Arabia will gradually resume Umrah pilgrimage to 75% capacity on October 18, then 100% capacity from 1 November.  The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is developing a mobile application that will be available a week before the Umrah resumes.
  • Israel reports highest daily spike in coronavirus infections to date, ahead of the second nationwide lockdown on Friday (25 September). Prime Minister  

Africa

  • On the third day of the UN summit, African nations have called for fiscal measures, such as debt cancellation, that could help African countries weather the economic impact of the virus. At the conference, the President of the Ivory Coast pledged to invest $3 billion in its health system from 2021-2025.

USA

Latin America

  • Rio has postponed its annual carnival, and the organisers have said the event won’t take place until a vaccine is found. The announcement applies only the samba school competition, Brazilian authorities have yet to announce whether smaller “blocos” (the less formal street parties) will be allowed.

Asia

 

International data

 

Below is the latest international comparison of COVID-19 data using WHO published figures. As mentioned before, country to country comparison has some limitations because of the variation in approach, data collection and testing.

 

Data from 24/09/2020:

  • Worldwide, there have now been 31,798,308 confirmed cases and 973,653 deaths, an increase of 6.8% for cases (2,022,229 more cases) and 3.8% for deaths (35,988 more) since last week. This suggests that worldwide cases and deaths continue to rise at a steady rate.
  • The number of UK cases (409,733) accounts for 1.3% of world cases, while the number of UK deaths accounts for 4.3% of world deaths (41,862). For the second week, the UK continues to be ranked at 14th in terms of cases, however, remains the country with the highest death toll in Europe. Globally, the UK has the fifth highest deaths. When compared to the previous week, cases in the UK saw a larger increase at 8.3% (31,510 new cases), up from 6.5% last week.
  • Cases in Europe continue to rise. This week, France continues to see a large increase in the number of cases where it experienced a 19.4% increase in cases (74,294 new cases bringing the total number of cases up to 458,132) and is now ranked 12th globally in terms of cases. Spain witnessed a 9.8% increase in cases (61,695 new cases).
  • The USA remains the country with the most cases and deaths in the world, accounting for 21.5% of world cases (6,828,785 cases) and 20.5% of total deaths (199,600 deaths).
  • Cases in India continue to rise. This week, cases increased by 12% to 5,732,518 (614,265 new cases) and deaths increased by 9.6% to 91,149 (7,951 more deaths).
  • Cases in Latin America also continue to rise, this by 5.5% to 7,953,027 (411,042 more cases) and accounting for 25% of the world’s total number of cases. This week, cases in Argentina increased by 13% to 652,174 and the number of deaths increased by 17% to 13,952 (2,042 more deaths). However, Brazil remains the country with the highest number of cases (4,591,604 cases) and deaths (138,108 deaths) in Latin America. Globally, Brazil has the second highest number of deaths and the third highest number of cases.
  • Other countries experiencing a significant increase in cases include Ukraine (13.2% increase to 188,106 cases), Israel (12.7% increase in cases to 199,072 cases) and Indonesia (12.4% increase to 257,388).
  • Currently, England has 14 times more cases than Scotland (25,960 cases), 16 times more cases than Wales (21,896 cases) and 36 times more cases than Northern Ireland (9,950 cases) (PHE data).

 

 

 

 

Cases

% change since last week

Deaths

% change since last week

Death rate

1

USA

                         6,828,785

4.6%

                            199,600

2.7%

2.9%

2

India

                         5,732,518

12.0%

                              91,149

9.6%

1.6%

3

Brazil

                         4,591,604

4.8%

                            138,108

3.7%

3.0%

4

Russia

                         1,128,836

4.0%

                              19,948

4.7%

1.8%

5

Colombia

                            777,537

6.7%

                              24,570

5.5%

3.2%

6

Peru

                            776,546

5.2%

                              31,568

2.1%

4.1%

7

Mexico

                            705,263

4.3%

                              74,348

3.7%

10.5%

8

Spain

                            693,556

9.8%

                              31,034

2.0%

4.5%

9

South Africa

                            665,188

1.8%

                              16,206

3.2%

2.4%

10

Argentina

                            652,174

13.0%

                              13,952

17.1%

2.1%

11

France

                            458,132

19.4%

                              31,273

1.3%

6.8%

12

Chile

                            449,903

2.4%

                              12,345

2.4%

2.7%

13

Iran

                            432,798

5.5%

                              24,840

5.1%

5.7%

14

UK

                            409,733

8.3%

                              41,862

0.4%

10.2%