Virus rages in Asia but retreats elsewhere

THE COVID-19 pandemic continued its retreat around the world this week, but infections were still raging in hotspots in Asia and Oceania, led by Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Here is the state of play based on AFP's database:

- 12 per cent fall -

The average number of global daily cases dropped for the fifth week in a row, shrinking by 12 per cent to 1.47 million, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

Daily infections have fallen by half since peaking at 3.37 million in late January with the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

- Asia, Oceania buck improvement -

This week, Asia and Oceania bucked a global improvement, seeing the number of cases spike by 25 per cent and 72 per cent respectively compared to the previous week.

The situation markedly improved in all other regions of the world, with 45 per cent less cases in the Middle East, 40 per cent less in the Latin America-Caribbean zone, 34 per cent less in Africa, 23 per cent less in the United States-Canada zone and 22 per cent less in Europe.

- Main spikes -

New Zealand recorded the biggest increase in new cases, with an almost seven-fold spike (590 per cent).

Hong Kong was hot on its heels with 403 per cent more cases. Then came Vietnam with 119 per cent more, South Korea 40 per cent more and Thailand 19 per cent more.

- Main drops -

The main drops came in Central Asia and the Caucasus, led by Azerbaijan where cases plummeted by 63 per cent. In neighbouring Armenia, cases dropped by three fifths and by 52 per cent in Georgia. In Panama, the number of cases dropped by 51 per cent and in Israel by half.

- South Korea has most cases -

South Korea overtook Germany, to record the most new cases this week, with 170,300 per day, an increase of two fifths.

Germany, with 153,700, or seven percent less cases, stood in second place.

Vietnam came in third place with 120,600, an increase of 119 per cent.

On a per capita basis, the place with the most new cases over the week was Hong Kong, with 3,555 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Latvia followed, with 3,081 and New Zealand with 2,550.

- Deaths -

The number of Covid-linked deaths continued to fall, by 19 per cent this week to 7,596 per day.

The US again mourned the most deaths, with an average of 1,644 per day, followed by Russia with 776 and Brazil 455.

The countries reporting the highest death rates in proportion to their population were Hong Kong with 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Latvia (6.6) and Georgia (6.3).