International policy updates

Global

• Resilience ranking: Bloomberg has published a metric, 10 key metrics across both COVID-19 status and quality of life, listing where COVID-19 responses have been most effective. The UK is number 28, and New Zealand is first.

Vaccines

• Qantas, the Australian airline, will require proof of vaccinations to fly
• Thailand and the Philippines are set to sign a vaccine agreement for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
• AstraZeneca will undergo a new global trial, using a lower dose regimen, that had proved to be more effective in the first round of trails across the UK and Brazil.

Europe

• Greece has announced that lockdown will be extended until 7 December.
• Confidence in “herd immunity”, Sweden’s national strategy aimed at fighting the coronavirus has fallen recently. A poll by DN/Ipsos showed that 82% of Swedes are ether ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ worried. As of Thursday, 70% of the countries intensive care beds were occupied.
• Italian and German governments are considering an EU wide closure of ski resorts over the Christmas holidays, however Switzerland and Austria have asked that the resorts remain open.
• R below 1: following a strict lockdown in France, coronavirus rates, deaths and hospitalisations are on the decline.
• Iceland’s Directorate of Health have worked closely with deCODE, the human-genomics company. In Iceland they have tracked the health of every person who has tested positive and sequenced the genetic material of each virus, which they claim has contributed to the low death rate of fewer than seven deaths per 100,000 people
• The Czech Republic will begin offering free antigen tests for any citizen who wants one from 18 December.
• Infections in Germany pass 1 million.

North America

• A pilot programme with Delta airlines will allow a ‘quarantine free flight’ from Atlanta to Rome. Passengers who have been permitted to travel to Italy for essential reasons would have to test negative for COVID-19 three times, once with a polymerase chain reaction (P.C.R.) test taken up to 72 hours before departure, once with a rapid test at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and once again with a rapid test upon arrival at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

Africa

• Cases in the Western Cape of South Africa have risen by 52% in the past week.

Asia

• Hong Kong’s health secretary has said that all clubs, bathhouses, bars and rented rooms for parties must close.
• A latex glove maker in Malaysia has had a coronavirus outbreak, potentially affecting supply chains as 16 factories have temporarily suspended production.

International COVID-19 analysis

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 26/11/2020:

• Worldwide, there have now been 60,074,174 confirmed cases and 1,346,478 COVID-19 deaths, an increase of 7.2% for cases (4,043,751 more cases) and 0.2% increase for deaths (2,475 more deaths) since last week. This suggests that worldwide cases continue to rise at a steady rate but the increase in deaths has decreased (4.9% increase in deaths week before).
• The UK continues to be ranked at 7^th in the world for number of cases with 1,557,011 total cases. This accounts for 2.6% of world cases. The number of UK deaths accounts for 4.2% of world deaths (56,533). The UK remains the country with the highest death toll in Europe and the fifth highest death toll globally.
• Overall, cases in Europe continue to rise although at a slower rate. Cases in the UK increased by 8.9% this week (126,666 more cases), down from a growth rate of +13.8% last week. Italy continues to see a significant rise in cases as cases increase by 16.4% (208,522 more cases) since the previous week. Although, this is a fall from a growth rate of +23.7% last week. This week, France experienced a 5.1% increase in cases (103,649 more cases), down from a growth rate of +10.8% last week. After growth in cases slowed down slightly in Spain last week at +2.9% (down from +8.5% the week before), this week they experience an increase of 3.9% (60,177 more cases). Germany has seen an increase in cases of 14.9% in the past week (127,672 more cases).
• The USA remains the country with the most cases and deaths in the world, accounting for 20.7% of world cases (12,441,925) and 19.1% of total deaths (257,825 deaths). India remains the country with the second highest number of cases in the world with 9,266,705 cases, an increase of 2.8% cases since last week. Brazil remains the country with the third highest number of cases in the world. However, cases appear to be slowing down in Brazil as they experience a 2.0% increase (206,950 more cases) since last week, down from 3.7% last week.
• South Africa remains the worst affected country in Africa with 775,502 recorded cases and 21,201 deaths.
• Currently England has 15 times more cases than Scotland (92,186 cases), 18 times more cases than Wales (75,986 cases) and 27 times more cases than Northern Ireland (51,118 cases) (PHE data).