“Thanks to Operation Warp Speed we developed a vaccine in just nine months, we’ve already begun a nationwide vaccination program, and we’re sending the vaccine all over the world. The world will benefit we’ll benefit, and everybody’s calling to thank me”
On 31 December 2019, the WHO was informed about the first cases in Wuhan, China. During the January 2020 the disease spread further within China and also started to venture into neighbouring (and some further away) countries. During February new regional hotspots developed in South Korea, Italy and Iran. During March the disease spread further mostly in Central and Southern Europe and the USA. In the month of April the disease continues to spread in the USA, and within Europe the United Kingdom is taking center stage and Turkey and Russia are joining the group of new regional hotspots. Quickly growing numbers in Brazil and Peru are putting South America on the map in May, India does the same for South Asia.
In June Brazil overtook the USA in terms of new confirmed cases. In July the USA took the first place again and South Africa joined the top five. In August India had the highest number of new infections and Colombia and Peru joined the top five and a second wave pushed Spain back in the top 10 countries.
The highest number of new cases in August 2020 was recorded in India (1,982,375), followed by USA (1,510,938), Brazil (1,293,888), Colombia (323,859), Peru (238,752), Argentina (222,243), Mexico (183,263), Russian Federation (155,338), Spain (151,005) and South Africa (142,887).
In September the Top 3 countries remain unchanged, India with 2.6 million new cases, the USA with 1.2 million cases and Brazil with almost 900 000 new cases. With Spain and France two European countries entered again the centre stage, with 300,000 and 265,000 new cases – respectively.
This showed the trend for October, Europe becomes again the epicentre of the pandemic. While India (1.9 million) and the USA (1.8 million) still have the highest amount of new cases, France was moving to third place, with 772,877 new cases. The United Kingdom is now on fifth place with 543,589 new cases that month. Spain, Italy, Belgium, Czechia, Germany and the Netherlands also moved into the Top 15. Still the highest number of people in October died in India (24,144), followed by the USA (23,303), Brazil (16,911), Argentina (14,329) and Mexico (14,170).
In November the USA (4.2 million) and India (1.3 million) switched places again. Italy (937,504), France (880,203) and Brazil (795,896) complete the top 5, followed by Russia, Poland, UK, Germany and Spain. The highest number of deaths in November were recorded in the USA (36,768), followed by Italy (16,583), France (15,715), India (15,498) and Mexico (14,686).
There is no real trend change in December: most cases are still registered in the USA (6.3 million), followed by Brazil (1.3 million), Russia (863,643), India (834,983) and the UK (815,561). Turkey, Germany, Italy, France and Ukraine complete the top 10.
Most deaths are registered in the USA (71,843), Brazil (20,120) and Italy (18,700).
Read more on the chronology of the pandemic in our blog.
