Covid-19 Infects More Than One Million Per Day

The increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Mexico accelerated, since between Wednesday and Thursday, 8,024 new cases were confirmed, that is, almost 3,000 more than those reported a day earlier. In total, the number of infections totaled 3,969,686. Deaths increased by 153, for a cumulative total of 299,285. The estimated active cases, i.e., with transmission capacity, increased to 34,761, i.e., almost 7,000 more than those reported on Wednesday. This is almost double the number of active cases reported a week ago. Despite this, the Daily Technical Report on the status of the pandemic reveals that hospital occupancy remains unchanged, with an occupancy rate of 15 percent for general beds and 11 percent for ventilator beds. Regarding the update of the National Vaccination Strategy, the Ministry of Health informed that 124,867 doses were applied this Wednesday, with a cumulative of 148 million 814,260 vaccines administered. Of the 81.9 million people who have received at least one dose, 72.7 million, or 89 percent, have already completed their vaccination schedule, and 9.1 million, which corresponds to 11 percent of those who have been immunized, have half a schedule. Meanwhile, worldwide, more than one million new daily cases of Covid-19 were registered in the week of December 23-29, according to an AFP count. In the last seven days, more than 7.3 million new cases of Covid-19 were detected worldwide, an average of 1.45 million infections per day.

These figures far exceed the record prior to the current wave, which was reached between April 23 and April 29, 2021 (of 817 thousand cases per day). They are based on daily reports from health authorities in each country. A significant portion of less severe or asymptomatic cases remain undetected despite intensified testing in many countries since the start of the pandemic, following the discovery of the virus in late 2019. In addition, testing policies differ from country to country. The number of infections worldwide, which has risen since mid-October, grew 46% in the past seven days compared to the previous week. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Wednesday that the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant could lead to a "tsunami of cases."

"This puts and will continue to put enormous pressure on depleted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse," he warned. More than 85% of current contaminations are concentrated between two regions where omicron is very present: Europe (4 million 22 thousand cases in the last seven days, i.e. 36% more than the previous week) and the United States and Canada (2 million 264 thousand cases, +83%). In the last week, the pandemic only receded in Asia (268 thousand cases, -12%). In contrast to the contamination, the number of deaths related to covid-19 continues to decrease since three weeks ago. In the last seven days, some 6,400 virus-related deaths have been reported worldwide (6% less than the previous week), the lowest level since October 2020. At the height of the pandemic, between January 20 and 26, 14,800 deaths per day were recorded.