Worldwide covid cases surpass 500 million as Omicron variant BA.2 surges
GlobalCOVID-19casessurpassed500millionon Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the highly contagiousBA.2sub-variant ofOmicronsurgesin many countries in Europe and Asia.
The rise ofBA.2has been blamed for recentsurgesin China as well as record infections in Europe. It has been called the "stealth variant" because it is slightly harder to track than others.
South Korea leads the world in the daily average number of newcases, reporting more than 182,000 new infections a day and accounting for one in every four infections globally, according to a Reuters analysis.
Newcasesare rising in 20 out of more than 240 countries and territories tracked, including Taiwan, Thailand and Bhutan.
Shanghai is fighting China's worstCOVID-19 outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, with almost 25,000 new localcasesreported, although the city's quarantine policy is criticized for separating children from parents and putting asymptomatic casesamong those with symptoms.
"Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage," Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, told a briefing.
Europe, US still affected
Some European countries are now seeing a slower uptick in newcases, or even a decline, but the region is still reporting over 1 million casesabout every two days, according to the Reuters tally.
In Germany, the seven-day average of new infections has fallen and is now at 59 per centof its previous peak in late March. New casesare also falling in the United Kingdom and Italy, while they are holding steady in France.
Overall,COVID-19casesin the United States have dropped sharply after hitting record levels in January, but the resurgence ofcasesin parts of Asia and Europe has raised concerns that another wave could follow in the United States.
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The USnational public health agency said on Monday theBA.2sub-variantofOmicronwas estimated to account for nearly three of every four coronavirusvariants in the country.
TheBA.2variantnow makes up about 86 per cent of all sequencedcasesglobally, according to the World Health Organization. It is known to be more transmissible than the BA.1 and BA.1.1Omicronsub-variants. Evidence so far, though, suggestsBA.2is no more likely to cause severe disease.
Scientists continue to emphasize vaccines are critical for avoiding the devastation the virus can cause.
Roughly 64.8 per centof the world population has received at least one dose of aCOVIDvaccine, although only 14.8 per centof people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to figures from Our World in Data.
Whilecaseshave flared in Europe and Asia recently, the United States still has the highest totalCOVIDinfections since the start of the pandemic with 80.41million, followed by India with 43.04millionand Brazil with 30.14million.
Since 2020, about 37 per centof the world’s covidcaseshave been in Europe, 21 per centin Asia and 17 per centin North America.
About 6.5millionpeople have lost their lives to covid since the pandemic began. The United States has reported the highest number of deaths, followed by Russia, Brazil and India.
Russia overtook Brazil to have the world's second-highest death toll fromCOVID-19, data from Russia's state statistics service and Reuters calculations showed on Thursday.