MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/: The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases reported worldwide in July dropped 1.5 times as compared to June, to levels observed in October 2020, according to TASS calculations.
Overall, 11.2 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus were registered on the planet in June, compared to 18.4 million cases in May. The number of active cases currently stands at 11 million, which is among the lowest monthly figures in 2021.
However, COVID-19 mortality continues to grow, and is about to reach peak figures recorded this January, when the disease claimed over 400,000 lives all over the globe in just one month. June’s mortality is slightly below this peak, with some 382,000 deaths reported worldwide, a 10% increase since May.
TASS has gathered key figures of the pandemic for the past month.
Outbreaks
The majority of cases were reported in Latin America, hit by a new wave of the pandemic. Relatively low numbers of vaccinated persons in the region coincided with removal of tough anti-coronavirus restrictions, prompting a surge in cases.
For example, about 1.9 million people were diagnosed with the illness in Brazil in June, which is largely comparable to May’s figures. At the same time, Colombia recorded 810,000 new cases last month, which is 1.5 times more than in May. Cases also began to surge in Mexico, where cases almost doubled in comparison with May, to about 100,000 people.
In the western hemisphere, serous outbreaks were registered in the United Kingdom, Russia and Brazil. The United Kingdom, where about 3,000 cases were registered daily in the beginning of summer, now reports almost 28,000 COVID-19 cases every day. Russia’s daily COVID-19 figures increased from 9,000 to 23,000, while in Indonesia daily cases leaped from approximately 5,000 to 25,000.
Stabilization
A sharp decline in cases was registered in India, where a devastating outbreak was recorded in past months. In June, case incidence shrunk four-fold as compared to May, to 2 million people. In the United States, which has been the hardest-hit nation since the start of the pandemic, cases declined to levels observed at the very outset of the pandemic, in March 2020. The country reported only 400,000 cases on its territory in June, compared to about 870,000 cases registered in May.
The situation also started to improve in Argentina, where 35,000 cases were confirmed on the first day of June, and 22,700 - on the last. Overall, the country’s monthly number stands at about 640,000.
Turkey reported a surge in coronavirus cases in April, but cases remained high in May as well. In June, however, cases declined by half, with daily average at about 5,600.
Many European countries, where a large number of residents have already been vaccinated, reported below 2,500 cases daily, and started to ease coronavirus-related restrictions. However, it is too early to say that the situation has stabilized there: in the last days of June, cases spiked in Spain (from 3,300 to 12,300 cases daily).
Mortality
The highest mortality was reported in countries where cases continue to rise. The COVID-19 case-fatality ratio remains unchanged, at approximately 2.17%.
The majority of deaths - about 1,800 per day - were reported in Brazil.
Although the epidemiological process started to stabilize in Argentina, mortality reached its peak, with almost 800 deaths registered in one of the days in June. Fatalities also peaked in Colombia, where about 650 patients die every day.
Russia has also reached peak figures in July, with all-time high daily mortality figures of 600 and higher reported in late June.
The trend was reversed in India: the country that reported about 3,000 COVID-related deaths every day in early June started to register less than 1,000 deaths in the end of the month. In the United States, mortality declined from about 500 to 200 deaths per day. Despite a serious surge in cases in the United Kingdom, the number of deaths there remains low and does not exceed 25 per day.
