The Covid-19 pandemic took a turn for the worse this week, fuelled by fast deteriorating situations in western Europe and the United States
The number of new daily coronavirus cases increased sharply by nine percent globally to 517,600, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.
There were however wide disparities between regions.
Infections rocketed by a third in the US alone and were up nine percent in Europe.
But elsewhere cases fell, down by a tenth in the Middle East and Oceania, with infections falling by eight percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and four percent in Asia.
In Africa, case were down 32 percent, although this figure was skewed by last week’s correction in Botswana’s figures.
Nine of the 10 countries where the situation worsened fastest were in Europe (of countries with populations more than a million).
In Spain and Denmark cases were up by 54 percent, and they were also up by slightly more than a half in Portugal.
Switzerland (up 45 percent), the Netherlands (44 percent) and France (43 percent) were not much better.
The Czech Republic saw a 38 percent rise, followed by Germany (36 percent) and Austria (32 percent), which is going back into partial lockdown on Monday.
This week’s wave through western Europe — which is largely quite well vaccinated — follows sharp rises in less covered eastern Europe over the last few weeks.
However, the confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.
