Kavya B. & Aparupa Mazumder

(Reuters). Reuters reports that global COVID-19 numbers topped 500 million Thursday. The high-contagious BA.2 subvariant Omicron is causing surges in several European and Asian countries.

BA.2’s rise has been blamed both for the recent spikes in China, and also for record levels of infections in Europe. This variant is known as the “stealth version” due to its difficulty in tracking other people.  

South Korea has the highest daily incidence of new infections in the world, with more than 182,000 cases reported per day. According to Reuters, South Korea accounts for one out four global infections. 

There are 20 new cases in 20 of the more than 240 territories and countries tracked. This includes Bhutan, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Shanghai has been fighting China’s most severe COVID-19 epidemic since it first appeared in Wuhan late 2019. There have been almost 25,000 cases in Shanghai. However, the quarantine policy in Shanghai is being criticized for isolating parents from their children and placing symptomatic patients among the ones with symptoms. 

Wu Qianyu from the municipal government’s health commission stated during a briefing that: “Shanghai is in the hardest and most critical stage of epidemic prevention and control.” 

EUROPE, U.S. EUROPE, U.S.

Some European countries now see a slow increase in cases or even a decrease, however, the region still reports over 1,000,000 cases approximately every two days according to the Reuters tally. 

The seven-day mean number of infections in Germany has dropped to 59% from its peak of late March. The number of new infections is also declining in Italy and the United Kingdom while it remains steady in France.

The overall number of COVID-19-related cases in the United States has dropped dramatically after reaching record highs in January. However, there are concerns about a new wave of cases emerging in America due to the recent resurgence in cases from parts of Asia or Europe.

According to the U.S. National Public Health Agency, nearly three out of four variants of coronavirus in America are found in Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant. 

According to the World Health Organization, 86% of sequenced cases worldwide now come from the BA.2 variant. The BA.2 variant is more easily transmissible than both the BA.1 Omicron and BA.1.1 Omicron variations. However, evidence suggests that BA.2 has a lower risk of causing severe diseases. 

Scientists emphasize the importance of vaccines to prevent the devastating effects that the virus can have on the body.

A little over 64.8% has had at least one COVID vaccine. But, figures from Our World in Data show that only 14.8% of low-income people have received at minimum one dose. 

While there have been cases in Europe and Asia, recent outbreaks are still common. The United States has 80.41 Million COVID infection, which is the most since the beginning of the pandemic. India and Brazil follow with 43.04 and 30.14 millions, respectively. 

Since 2020, about 37% of the world’s COVID cases have been in Europe, 21% in Asia and 17% in North America.

Around 6.5 Million people died from COVID in the first year of the pandemic. USA has been the country with the most deaths. India, Brazil, and Brazil are close behind.

Russia surpassed Brazil to be the second-highest COVID-19 death rate, according to Russian statistics and Reuters calculations.