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In 15 days, coronavirus epicentre shifts from China to Europe
Last week, China said that its coronavirus outbreak peak is finally over and reported a decline in its new cases.
The past fortnight seems to have changed the whole picture of the coronavirus outbreak across the globe. Almost fifteen days back, China was still grappling to contain the virus and was the epicentre of the infection when the contagion quickly shifted to Europe which has now emerged as the new epicentre of the coronavirus outside China.
Last week, China said that its coronavirus outbreak peak is finally over and reported a decline in its new cases.
The number of positive coronavirus cases in China has more or less remained over 80,000 and below 85,000 for the past week. European nations like Italy, and now Spain, have accounted for a rapid increase in new coronavirus cases and deaths.
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The World Health Organisation has put together a country-wise map depicting the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. In the case of China, after a wave of an increasing number of coronavirus cases, the graph almost hits a plateau towards the end of February. For Italy, the graph shows a dramatic spike in the number of cases from the beginning of this month.
In just 15 days, the entire battlefront of the coronavirus outbreak seems to have changed. On March 1, China accounted for over 90 per cent of the total Covid-19 patients. As of March 15, the rest of the world accounted for nearly half of the total number of coronavirus cases.
China seems to have completely reversed the tide with respect to its ‘active cases’ which now stand at 15 per cent as opposed to a whopping 80 per cent of total global cases on March 1. Active cases are the number of positive cases minus all deaths and recoveries.
It has been over a week since China reported more than 40 new coronavirus cases in a day. Other countries are reporting a large number of new cases every day since February 26. 
On March 14, China reported 24 new cases while the cumulative tally across the globe stood at over 10,000.
Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, its biggest one day rise, amid growing concern about the ability of its strained health system to cope with the relentless increase in new cases.
Spain, the second-worst affected European country after Italy, on Saturday ordered its 47 million citizens to stay indoors except for necessary outings such as buying food and medicine. Social gatherings are banned.
In India, the total number of coronavirus cases have crossed over 100. Two people have lost their lives to the infection. With 25 people testing positive, Sunday recorded the highest single-day increase in the number of cases in India. So far, 13 people have recovered from Covid-19 in India.
