The novel coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has now infected more than 5,101,400 people worldwide. COVID-19 now has killed 332,900 people, according to a real-time data tracker from the Johns Hopkins University.
The World Health Organization noted there were 106,000 new cases reported from Tuesday to Wednesday, the largest jump in a single day since the outbreak started in December. On Thursday, WHO reported 103,981 cases in the past 24 hours.
Per region, the Americas have the highest cases at 2,166,033 cases and 128,649 deaths. Europe has 1,946,610 total cases and 170,283 total deaths. The Eastern Mediterranean 376,379 total number of infections and 10,468 total number of deaths. The Western Pacific region meanwhile, has 170,910 cases and 6,793 deaths while the Southeast Asian region has 164,225 total cases and 5,140 deaths.
The cases in Africa, meanwhile, are alarming given the many nations in the region without secure medical facilities. The continent now has 164,225 cases and 5,140 deaths.
A separate data from the New York Times said the past one week saw an average number of daily new cases at 91,000. This is "higher than ever" according to the publication. The only good thing is, but still, unfortunate fo course, is that the number of reported deaths is decreasing this past week.
A big percentage of the increase in reported cases is coming from the United States. The country has the largest number of cases in the world. Other contributory factors are the drastic surge in cases in Russia and Brazil, as well as South American nations including Chile, Colombia, and Peru.
Other factors to the continuous spike in the number of infections include errors in screenings, weak political leadership, and asymptomatic patients who remain to be on the run.
The surge in cases continues to happen as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus admitted that the organization has a relatively small budget compared to its scope and impact. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization is already in the process of evaluating its budget. It doesn't help that the Trump administration has threatened to withdraw its WHO funding entirely.
These are the countries with more than 100,000 cases as per published data from WHO as of May 21:
1,577,140 US
317,554 Russia
310,087 Brazil
252,246 United Kingdom
233,037 Spain
228,006 Italy
181,951 France
179,021 Germany
153,548 Turkey
129,341 Iran
118,226 India
108,769 Peru
These are the nations with more than 20,000 deaths as of May 21:
94,702 deaths US
36,124 deaths United Kingdom
32,486 deaths Italy
28,218 deaths France
27,940 deaths Spain
20,047 deaths Brazil
