There are millions of people infected with the COVID-19 disease and the global number has surpassed 30 million according to the John Hopkins university. And in that huge number, more than 900,000 people have lost their lives to the disease which started in Wuhan, China late last year.

The United States, India and Brazil have the most confirmed cases around the world with Europe also seeing a surge in the number of cases being reported. It’s in fact possible that a second wave of the pandemic might be on it’s way as countries in the norther hemisphere are said to already be bracing themselves for such as the winter season approaches which is the best breeding period for a viral disease such as the SARS-CoV-2.

The UK government for example is said to be considering a nationwide measure which includes a short period of restriction in order to slow things down in order to prevent the second wave. While Israel started a second nationwide lockdown later on Friday making the country the first to do so.

While Africa has recorded more than 1 million confirmed cases seven though the true extent of the pandemic in the continent isn’t well known due to the lack of better testing infrastructures in place.

Coronavirus and the world

The global spread of the disease had been documented by experts in the John Hopkins University which their data made it clear that the US is the worst hit country in terms of sheer numbers as over 6.6 million cases have been confirmed with over 197,000 deaths.

While it seemed the rate of infection was slowed back in June, there was a spike n July but number is also reportedly on the decline.

The US President had been called out for downplaying the severity of the disease something which he denied earlier on this week while in India, the number of infections had grown above five million making it the second-highest caseload in the world.

When comparing figures from different countries it is important to bear in mind factors such as population size and density. For instance, India has a population of 1.3bn people.

Meanwhile the speed at which the disease is being transmitted in India is much more faster than other countries in the world with daily reported cases hitting as high as 90,000 in recent days and more than 80,000 people have reportedly died from the disease.

Brazil has had more than 4.4 million confirmed cases, with more than 134,000 fatalities – the second-highest death toll after the US.

The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro had been accused of downplaying the severity of the disease after he was was attending an anti-lockdown rally.

Meanwhile Argentina did report about 13,000 cases on Thursday over a 24 hours period which increased the country’s number of cases to about 600,000 while Mexico’s cases is about 3,000 daily reported cases with a total of 680,000.

At the same time, deaths per 100,000 people vary significantly from country to country, with San Marino, Peru and Belgium having the highest rates, and India one of the lowest.

A little back track on the global pandemic can be traced back to December of 2019 when a new strain of viral infection was reported in Wuhan, China with the disease leading to a global disaster causing the downfall of numerous economies and businesses.

Moving forward

There have been a number of researches going on which is meant to find the absolute vaccine to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US President recently announced that a vaccine might be available before November 3rd even though this had been shunned to be unrealistic by medical research experts.

Russia too licensed a vaccine for local use back in August which was the first country to do so but then scientists from the country did published later on the first report on the vaccine stating early test showed signs of an immune response.

But experts warned that the trials were too small to prove effectiveness and safety. But there hasn’t been any other country to do so and there have been rumors about richer countries getting it first at the expense of the vulnerable.

At the same time, more than 150 different drugs are being researched to identify treatments for people with severe Covid-19. Of all the drugs being trialled, only steroids have been proven to save lives and the discovery has been a significant breakthrough.

There was an initial case with hydroxychloroquine but the UK recovery trial showed that steroid dexamethasone cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators and by fifth on those on oxygen. And further data suggests another steroid, hydrocortisone, is equally effective too.