More cases of COVID-19 are now being reported worldwide every day than ever in the pandemic, surpassing the previous global peak in early January.
The big picture: At the time, the United States and Europe were pushing for the rise. This time, the biggest source of new cases is India.
Driving the news: In cities like New Delhi, which today imposed a new all-week closure, hospitals are overflowing, supplies such as oxygen are scarce and morgues are excessive.
- India now has more than twice as many cases every day as during the first wave of autumn, and in some cities the rate of new infections has increased up to 16 times in a single month, per AP.
The spike of India it has already had important global ramifications because the vaccines that were to be exported by the world’s largest producer, the Serum Institute of India, have been preserved for domestic use.
- The CEO of the institute is now calling on President Biden to reverse the ban on exporting the raw materials needed to produce vaccines, which he says contributes to the shortage.
- India has now supplied a dose to about 8% of its population, but will probably not be able to accelerate fast enough to vaccinate the way out of the current crisis.
Meanwhile, Chile – which has the highest vaccination rate in the Americas, with 41% receiving at least one dose – is also experiencing an increase in cases.
- Experts say political leaders and the public, both desperate to return to normalcy, overestimated the level of protection provided by a dose of China’s Sinovac vaccine, which turns out to be minimal, for WSJ.
- With two doses, however, the data show that the vaccine is 67% effective in preventing infection and 80% effective in preventing death.
- This suggests that Chile should be able to achieve herd immunity if it can maintain its vaccination rate, but this will take longer than expected. Meanwhile, the current wave should be less deadly as many older people are protected.
The reverse: The vaccine effect is already evident in Israel, where new cases have dropped from 3,954 a day six weeks ago to 167 a day.
- The UK comes out of the blockade with greater confidence, as more than half of the population and 90% of those over 70 have had at least one shot. Deaths have dropped by about 25 a day from more than 1,000 through early February.
- Other European countries are trying to balance efforts to control the spread in the hope that rapidly rising vaccination rates, combined with a warmer climate, should control outbreaks.
- Switzerland loosens restrictions, even with a relatively high number of cases, and Greece returns to quarantined travel to boost the tourism sector ahead of what it expects to be a big rebound this summer.
In much of the world, however, cases increase more rapidly than vaccination rates.
- Iran, for example, has more cases than ever and more deaths than at any time since November. Both figures increase dramatically. Meanwhile, only 0.4% of the population has been vaccinated.
In depth: Where do vaccines come from and go.