With the advance of the omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19, which is more transmissible than other strains in circulation, the planet returned to breaking a record of cases of contamination by the disease this Monday (27).
The data are from the Our World In Data platform, linked to the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, which registered a daily average of 847,136 cases this Monday, considering the previous seven days, the so-called moving average.
Before that, the previous record had been registered on April 28 of this year, with an average of 826,973 cases, when there was little availability of vaccines against Covid-19.
This Monday’s data was driven by the confirmation of 1.45 million cases in a single day, an absolute record so far, above the 905.8 thousand cases registered in April, at the peak of that wave of infections.
With the advance of vaccination, however, the number of deaths remains far below that registered in previous waves of the disease. On Monday, the moving average of registered deaths worldwide was 6,400 deaths, a number comparable to October 2020, when there were no available immunization agents.
Even so, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday (28) that it predicts that omicron causes an increase in hospitalizations, especially among unvaccinated people.
The recent explosion of disease contamination is happening in a different way around the world and driven by countries in the northern hemisphere, which face the cold of winter, a season in which respiratory diseases spread more easily.
The United States alone, for example, has confirmed an average of more than 237,000 cases per day. Europe has also broken absolute records, with an average of 441.5 thousand cases this Monday alone, well above the previous record of November 2020, with a moving average of 293.7 thousand cases.
Brazil, on the other hand, is at one of the moments with the lowest confirmation of cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with a moving average of 4,311 contaminations, according to figures gathered by the press consortium.
But this number hides the real situation in the country, since since the Ministry of Health’s systems were attacked on December 10, states have had difficulties in sending information about the disease to the federal government. This is the situation in São Paulo, for example, the most populous state that traditionally concentrates most cases in Brazil, but which has not updated the number of infections and deaths since the 11th.
In addition, another factor that the comparison hides is testing, since in most European nations and the United States it is possible to test for the disease much easier than in Brazil, such as receiving tests at home, which allows to identify a much larger volume of contaminations.
But when you look at the progression of the disease in specific countries, such as the United Kingdom, you can see the impact of a more transmissible variant. The country registered on Monday a daily average of 108.3 thousand cases, almost double the previous record in January, with an average of 59,700 cases. According to Our World In Data, 58% of contaminations in the country are caused by omicron. Two weeks ago, that figure was 9.5%.
So countries have rushed to give a booster dose of the vaccine to the population, which research so far indicates increases protection against the new strain of virus. In the second, the French government announced that it will reduce from four to three months the interval between the second and third dose of the vaccine, the same deadline adopted in the United Kingdom. In Brazil, the interval is four months.
At the same time, governments have tightened restrictions to contain the spread of the disease. France limited the allowable size of agglomerations, banned standing audiences at concerts, restricted service in bars and restaurants to seated consumers, and returned to encouraging remote working and the wearing of masks outdoors. The Netherlands announced a new lockdown until January 14, with closing of non-essential services.
Portugal, one of the most vaccinated nations in the world, has closed bars and nightclubs until January 9, when remote work will also be mandatory, and has limited public meetings to a maximum of ten people. Germany also announced limiting meetings to ten people and closing nightclubs, as well as suspending public football matches.
China, which works with a strategy known as “covid zero” of not tolerating outbreaks in the country, on Tuesday extended the lockdown imposed on the city of Xian, in the northwest of the country, after confirming 200 new cases.
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