Slowing the spread of the virus: will the epidemic end soon?

The epidemic has continued to decline worldwide for five consecutive weeks. The number of new infections each day decreased by 11 percent to 457,000, according to an AFP tally based on official data. The number of infections has risen since mid-June due to the highly contagious delta variant, but has fallen back for more than a month.

However, confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of actual infections, as the method of counting and testing practices differ in individual countries. However, the situation is improving in large parts of the world: in Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of cases has decreased by 31 percent, in the Middle East by 21 percent, and in Asia by 15 percent. There were ten fewer cases in the United States and Canada, and infection rates remained stable in Africa and Europe.

Lithuania with the strongest increase

Lithuania recorded the strongest increase in new infections at 62 percent, followed by Romania with 60 percent. There were also sharp increases in South Korea (46 percent) and Ukraine (36 percent).

Japan with the largest drop

The number of cases in Japan decreased by 42 percent, followed by Morocco (37 percent), Sri Lanka (36 percent), Indonesia (33 percent) and Israel (31 percent). The number of daily deaths worldwide fell by seven percent to 7,779.

The fastest vaccination rate among countries with a population of over one million was Cuba with its self-developed vaccine. There, 2.16 percent of the population is vaccinated every day. It is followed by South Korea with 1.49 percent and Taiwan with 1.21 percent.