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As Covid-19 pandemic rages, global daily deaths surpass peak levels from April
This means that more people are dying from Covid-19 across the world every day now than ever before in the 11 months since the virus was first reported in eastern China’s Wuhan city
While the latest wave of Covid-19 infections in the United States and Europe has been pushing the seven-day average of daily cases to record levels through the past month, the global death trajectory too has seen a massive rise in the past week, going beyond the previous peak witnessed in early April.
This means that more people are dying from Covid-19 across the world every day now than ever before in the 11 months since the virus was first reported in eastern China’s Wuhan city.
The global trajectory of the viral disease is currently at levels never before witnessed, particularly due to new infections and deaths in countries such as the United States, France, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy touching record levels in the past week or so, shows data from Worldometers.
DAILY DEATHS SOAR WORLDWIDE
As the first wave of infections tore through Europe and the US in March, deaths rose at a rapid rate through the month and beyond, with the seven-day average of daily deaths peaking at 7,089 on April 18. In the months, and waves of infections, that followed, while daily cases continued to rise, setting new records on regular intervals, the death trajectory never went past the levels from mid-April.
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This was largely due to two reasons. First, scientists and doctors got better at saving lives as better understanding of the disease developed with time. Second, the general population in Asia and South America, where the virus spread to through May and September, is younger.
By mid-April, the case fatality rate, or the CFR, of the disease across the world was a little over 7%, compared to 2.5% at present. This was particularly due to the high number of fatalities in the West. The US, which had seen more than 40,000 people die from the disease, had the most deaths in the world and a CFR of 5%. Italy had reported 23,286 deaths from 175,918 cases till April 18, registering a CFR of 13%. Countries like Spain and the UK till then had seen around 17% of all infected people die.
But as these countries brought the first wave under control, things got better and daily deaths remained low --- below the 6,000 mark for the next six months.
In the past few weeks, however, things have worsened. The spike in cases worldwide through October has caused a massive uptick in daily deaths, pushing the seven-day average above the mid-April level for the first time on November 4, when it touched 7140. And it has been rising fast since. Over the last week, 8,300 people have died every day.
Most of these deaths have come from the US, where 1,080 people have died every day in the past week. On average, 570 people have died every day in the last week in India – the second highest in the world. On the third spot is France, where 529 people have died a day in the last week. It is followed by Mexico and Italy, where the seven-day averages are 465 and 455, respectively. In Iran, the number is 451, while it is 375 in the UK.
To be sure, the number of daily deaths is rising very fast in Europe and North American nations, while in countries such as India that are seeing a drop in new infections, this number has been dropping fast.
NEW CASES
In terms of new infections, the US continues to have the most cases with the country reporting nearly 130,000 infections in the past week. India, despite the ebbing of the first wave of infections, has reported the second highest number of daily cases in the past week – 46,035. It is followed closely by France (46,031 new cases in the last week) and Italy (34,007 new cases). Interestingly, Poland has been the next largest contributor to daily cases as it has reported 25,600 new cases in the last week. Brazil is on the sixth spot with 22,581 new cases . It is followed by UK, Russia, Germany and Spain with 22524, 20501, 18402 and 17705 new cases a day, respectively.
Around 42% of all infections in the world have come from Europe -- 279,000 new infections a day in the past week. In North America, fuelled almost entirely by cases in the US, the seven-day average of daily cases is around 162,000, while the number is 95,000 in Asia.
