Thanks to our heroic vaccine effort, we’ve gained the upper hand against this virus. We can live our lives, our kids can go back to school, our economy is roaring back. Don’t get me wrong, COVID-19 is — has not been vanquished. We all know powerful variants have emerged, like the Delta variant, but the best defense against these variants is to get vaccinated.
The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic did not bring a change in terms of new infections: In January most cases are still registered in the USA (6.3 million), followed by Brazil (1.6 million) and – back in the Top 3 again – the UK (1.3 million).
February saw only a slight shift, with the USA and Brazil keeping their top places – with 2.5 million and 1.3 million new cases respectively and France (550 thousand) moving up into the top 3. The numbers of new infections go considerably down in the countries with the fastest vaccination roll-out: the numbers for the US halved and the UK has only a quarter of the numbers from just the month before. Indonesia and Czech Republic are new in the top 10.
In March 2021 the downwards trend for new cases in the USA continues and Brazil moves to first place (2.1 million). The USA is still on second place (1.7 million), India now on third place, after their case numbers tripled compared to the month before. France, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine and Russia complete the top 10.
April brought a new variant of the virus, much more infectious, first called India variant, after the country where it first was detected (later changed to Delta variant) and that six-folded the new cases in India to 6.6 million. Runner ups were Brazil and USA, both just under 2 million new cases, followed by Turkey (tripled the new infections to 1.6 million), France, Argentina, Iran, Germany, Poland and Italy.
May did not bring any chances on the top, with India’s new cases rising by another 30% to more than 9 million, Brazil staying roughly the same at just under 2 million while infections in the US cut by almost 50% to 1 million. Argentina and Colombia move into the top 5 with 80 thousand and 50 thousand new infections respectively. Turkey, Iran, France, Germany and Russia complete the top 10.
In June the spread of the virus is slowing down, there were 2.3 million new cases in India, 1.9 million in Brazil and 82 thousands in Colombia. Argentina, Russia complete the top 5 and with Indonesia and South Africa new countries moved into the top 10 (again).
July sees Brazil going back to the top of new confirmed COVID cases, with almost 1.4 million, followed by the US with 1.34 million and India with 1.2 million. Indonesia, UK, Russia, Spain, Iran, Colombia, Argentina and South Africa complete the top 10.
The highest numbers of deaths were now again registered in Brazil (40,405), followed by Indonesia (35,628) and India (25,356).
Read more on the chronology of the pandemic in our blog.
