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Highlights...
China has been left out. It makes no sense to include China's unreliable reporting; doing so would simply skew the real stats. It has reported 4 new cases today, while Malta (pop. 440K) has reported 10 new cases. Shameless!
The worldwide total has now exceeded a mammoth 4.62M cases. The USA has been the epicenter of this pandemic outbreak, with nearly 1.5M cases (32.1% of the world's total). Most of the European countries -- except Russia -- have peaked as their new cases, based on the 3-day moving averages, have been flat-lining or trending down. Spain remains at the top of the European list with 274K cases, followed by Russia, UK, Italy, France and Germany. In last two weeks, Brazil's cases have skyrocketed to 218K, overtaking France, Germany, Turkey and Iran.
2. Deaths -- The US death toll stands at a staggering 88K (29% of the world's total). Nonetheless, the US death rate of 6.0% has been significantly below some of the hardest-hit European countries, as well as Mexico and Canada. In fact, Belgium, Italy, France and UK's death rates have remained alarmingly high in the 14 to 16% range. Amazingly, Russia and Saudi Arabia have managed to hold their rates down to fractional percentages. Turkey, Peru and India's rates have been holding steady under 4%, while Germany and Iran are in the right direction as well.
3. Recovery -- Given the asymmetric outbreak around the world, it's still too premature to confirm the current worldwide average recovery rate of 38% as a good base rate, against which the rates of all hard-hit countries would be compared with. Similarly, considering the asymmetric outbreak in the US, it is difficult to confirm the current low rate of 22% as its national recovery rate. Germany, Spain, Turkey and Mexico have been registering better recovery rates. Obviously, Russia, Belgium, France, Peru and Brazil are struggling. While Iran has been maintaining a high recovery rate, it must be taken with a grain of salt in view of its limited medical resources. Again, the US situation is still evolving.
4. Active Cases -- Since the US situation is still fluid, its active cases account for 72%, though down from 85% a month ago. As expected, the countries with more recent surges, including Russia, have been dealing with high active rates. On the other hand, Germany has done a phenomenal job in keeping the active rate at a mere 9%, while Italy has been gaining control over its caseloads as well. Spain and Mexico are keeping the rate more manageable than Belgium, France, India, Peru and Saudi Arabia. Again, Iran's unusually low active rate of 15% could be suspect.
5. Total Tests and Positive Cases -- The US is the only country to have administered well over 10M tests, followed by Russia (6.4M), Germany (3.1M), Italy (2.9M), Spain (2.5M) and the UK (2.4M). Unfortunately, Brazil and Mexico have the two highest positivity rates of 30 and 27%, respectively. Also, Iran, the Netherlands, Peru, USA and France are registering in the mid-to-upper teens. Spain, UK, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are not too far behind either. Russia, Germany and Canada have significantly lower positive test rates. The reason Russia and Canada have low rates is that their tests might include a part of the asymptomatic population. Due to the paucity of testing resources worldwide, most countries are zeroing in on the symptomatic population only.
Data Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Stay safe!
-Sid Som
homequant@gmail.com
