Coronavirus cases surpass 200 million worldwide
Delta variant threatens areas with low vaccination rates and stretches healthcare systems: Report
GENEVA : Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 200 million, according to a Reuters tally, as the more infectious Delta variant threatens areas with low vaccination rates and strains healthcare systems.
The global surge in cases is highlighting the widening gap in inoculation rates between wealthy and poor nations. Cases are rising in about one-third of the world's countries, many of which have not even given half their population a first dose.
The Delta variant is upending all assumptions about the virus and roiling economies, with disease experts scrambling to find whether the latest version of coronavirus is making people, especially unvaccinated individuals, sicker than before.
At least 2.6 per cent of the world's population has been infected since the pandemic started, with the true figure likely higher due to limited testing in many places.
If the number of infected people were a country, it would be eighth most populous in the world, behind Nigeria, according to a Reuters analysis.
4.4 MILLION DEAD
It took over a year for Covid-19 cases to hit the 100 million mark, while the next 100 million were reported in just over six months, according to the analysis.
The pandemic has left nearly 4.4 million people dead.
The countries reporting the most cases on a seven-day average - the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, India and Iran - represent about 38 per cent of all global cases reported each day.
The United States accounts for one in every seven infections reported worldwide.
Countries in South-east Asia are also reporting rising cases.
Indonesia, which faced an exponential surge last month, is reporting the most deaths on average and surpassed 100,000 total fatalities on Wednesday.
A key issue, said Dr Gregory Poland, a vaccine scientist at the Mayo Clinic, is that the current vaccines block disease, but they do not block infection by keeping the virus from replicating in the nose.
As a result, he said, "the vaccines we have currently are not going to be the be-all, end-all".
"And we are going to chase our tail with variants until we get a type of vaccine that offers infection and disease-blocking capabilities." - REUTERS
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