Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[SvennoJ]

Weekly update. Numbers are stabilizing, some going up, some down, most flattening out, world total slightly down.

Numbers remain high creating new strains all the time. Mu is slowly gaining more traction.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/mu-variant-los-angeles-first-cases-new-covid-1234827340/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/mu-covid-strain-who-what-we-know-b953500.html

Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccinee sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

However it's still a variant of interest, not on the concern list (yet). For now it's not gaining much ground on the delta variant (< 0.1%) except in South America (39% of cases in Colombia)

Current strain watch list
https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/




In total 4.43 million new cases were reported last week (slightly down from 4.66 million) to a total of 220,595,328
Also another 68,528 more deaths were reported (down from 71,154) to a total of 4,566,224

Europe is slightly down, USA still going up but very slowly now. Deaths are creeping up and stabilizing.

The continents

Asia reported 1.74 million new cases (down from 1.81 million) and 27,120 more deaths (down from 31,381)
North America reported 1.41 million new cases (slightly down from 1.42 million) and 18,668 more deaths (up from 16,164)
Europe reported 868K new cases (down from 901K) and 10,492 more deaths (slightly up from 10,229)
South America reported 226K new cases (down from 268K) and 7,087 more deaths (slightly down from 7,744)
Africa reported 181K new cases (down from 248K) and 4,996 more deaths (down from 5,445)
Oceania reported 12.1K new cases (slightly down from 13.0K) and 165 deaths (191 last week)

Corners of the world

USA reported 1.16 million new cases (slightly up from 1.14 million) and 11,530 more deaths (up from 9,124)
India reported 296K new cases (up from 257K) and 2,853 more deaths (down from 3,405)
Iran reported 214K new cases (down from 253K) and 4,262 more deaths (slightly down from 4,477)
Brazil reported 152K new cases (down from 176K) and 4,357 more deaths (slightly down from 4,738)
Japan reported 136K new cases (down from 162K) and 387 deaths (263 last week)
South Africa reported 58.6K new cases (down from 80.1K) and 1,974 more deaths (slightly down from 2,204)
Canada reported 24.8K new cases (up from 20.6K) and 116 deaths (101 last week)
South Korea reported 12.0K new cases (slightly down from 12.3K) and 43 deaths (68 last week)
Australia reported 9,364 new cases (up from 6,587) and 41 deaths (16 last week)

Europe in detail

The UK is still creeping up, Norway is having its worst outbreak yet. France, Spain and Denmark are on a downward trend.

New Zealand is putting the cat back in the bag, cases are going down but not out of the woods yet. (3-day peak of 79 daily cases, now back to 53. Outbreak started Aug 17 when cases were below 4 a day from the border)

Australia is still not slowing down, 1,645 new cases yesterday, previous high was 721 on July 30th.