Week ending 31 July 

Headlines:

 

• As COVID-19 deaths surpass 150,000 and reports that the US economy shrunk by 9.5% in the last quarter, public health officials including the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force has said that states and localities should mandate wearing masks in public.
• Infections in India rose by 23.7% to 1,531,669 and death toll increased by 19% to 7,067 in the past week. This news comes as the federal government announces the reopening of yoga institutes and gymnasiums, and removed restrictions on the movement of people and goods.
• The number of UK cases accounts for 1.8% of world cases at 300,115 and 7.0% of world deaths due to coronavirus (45,759 deaths). While England did not have the highest peak mortality in Europe, it did have the longest continuous period of excess mortality (a slower ‘downward tail’ of the pandemic) of any country compared, resulting in England having the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe for the period as a whole.

 

International policy updates

 

Europe

 

• While England did not have the highest peak mortality, it did have the longest continuous period of excess mortality (a slower ‘downward tail’ of the pandemic) of any country compared, resulting in England having the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe for the period as a whole.
• Red light, green light, go; The Austrian health minister announced that the government would introduce a ‘traffic light’ rating system. This will calculate the number of new infection rates in each region and area. Giving Austrian’s a clear guide to where coronavirus rates may be increasing.
• Who’s in? Algeria is to be dropped from the EU’s safe travel list, and the travel ban on US citizens remains in place. EU government will review this list every fortnight, the list currently stand at 11 countries and EU officials have urged for no expansion to any other countries.

 

Africa

 

• Kenya joins South Africa in banning alcohol in in restaurants amid doubling of Covid-19 cases; the President had eased some restrictions, but has now ordered bars to remain closed for 30-days, and extended the nationwide dusk-to-sawn curfew by a further 30 days.
• Virus toll surges in Madagascar

 

Asia

 

• Infections in India rose by 23.7% to 1,531,669 and death toll increased by 19% to 7,067 in the past week. This news comes as the federal government announces the reopening of yoga institutes and gymnasiums, and removed restrictions on the movement of people and goods.
• The Philippine President Rodrigo Duerte has extended the restrictions in the capital, Manila until mid-August. In a televised address he promised free vaccinations if they became available by late this year, prioritising first the poor and then the middle class, police and military.
• In only a few days, a total of 47 people linked to a coronavirus contact in Vietnam have tested positive, potentially signalling the start of a more concerning wave of infections. The country is now on high alert

 

North America

 

• As COVID-19 deaths surpass 150,000 and reports that the US economy shrunk by 9.5% in the last quarter, public health officials including the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force has said that states and localities should mandate wearing masks in public.
• Operation Warp Speed may be rolled out at a slower pace than initially expected. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser of Operation Warp Speed, has said that there would be enough vaccines for all Americans ideally by the middle of 2021, but possibly not till the end of 2021.

 

South America

 

• Last week, Cuba registered zero new coronavirus deaths for the first time since the outbreak. However, as of yesterday, the daily count of coronavirus cases jumped to 37. Authorities have linked the cases to Bauta, an area southwest of Havana, since then Bauta has been placed under stricter quarantine than the original nationwide lockdown, closing most stores and only allowing one person per household out to shop or sending limited food parcels to residents’ homes.

 

 

 

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 29/07/2020:

• Worldwide, there are 16,523,815 confirmed cases (and increase of 10.1% and 1,511,084 more cases) and 655,112 deaths (an increase of 5.8% and 35,962 more deaths) than last week. This suggests that worldwide cases and deaths are still rising at a steady rate.
• The number of UK cases accounts for 1.8% of world cases at 300,115 and 7.0% of world deaths due to coronavirus (45,759 deaths). The UK continues to be ranked at 9 in terms of number of cases and remains the county with the highest death toll in Europe and third highest in the world.
• The USA remains the country with the most cases and deaths in the world, accounting for 25.8% of world cases (4,263,531 cases) and 22.5% of total deaths (147,449 deaths).
• Latin America remains the hotspot of the pandemic as cases and deaths continue to rise this week. Brazil continues to be the worst hit in this region with the second highest number of cases (2,442,375) and deaths (87,618) in the world.
• Cases in Asia continues to rise as cases and deaths. Cases in India increased by 23.7% to 1,531,669 and death toll increased by 19% to 7,067 in the past week. India remains ranked at 3 in terms of the number of cases and has the highest death toll in Asia.
• South Africa remain ranked at 5 as cases increase by 14.6% in the past week to 452,530. The number of deaths also continues to rise as their death toll increased by 19% to 7,067 since last week.
• Currently, England has 14 times more cases than Scotland (18,580 cases), 15 times more cases than Wales (17,223 cases) and 44 times more cases than Northern Ireland (5,930 cases) (PHE data).

 

		Cases	Deaths	Death rate
1	USA	4,263,531	147,449	3.5%
2	Brazil	2,442,375	87,618	3.6%
3	India	1,531,669	34,193	2.2%
4	Russia	823,515	13,504	1.6%
5	South Africa	452,530	7,067	1.6%
6	Peru	389,717	18,418	4.7%
7	Mexico	395,489	44,022	11.1%
8	Chile	349,800	9,240	2.6%
9	UK	300,115	45,759	15.2%
10	Iran	296,273	16,147	5.5%
11	Spain	278,782	28,434	10.2%
12	Pakistan	276,288	5,892	2.1%