Global COVID-19 cases exceed 412 million with death toll topping 5.82 million

The cumulative number of global COVID-19 cases had exceeded 412 million with the death toll surpassing 5.82 million as of Tuesday, according to the latest data released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Specifically, there had been 412,351,279 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,821,004 deaths, as of 17:50 Central European Time (CET) on Tuesday.

The case count of the United States rose to 78,027,205 with death toll reaching 925,287 as of 20:20 Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Tuesday, according to the latest data released by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The average number of new deaths per day in the country remained at a high level. The cumulative number of COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. is likely to exceed 1 million in April, the analysis of American media forecast.

Despite the lingering severity in epidemic situation, half of the U.S. states have repealed the mask mandates for schools and indoor public settings.

Regrettably, the latest data showed that since the CDC recommended that the elderly and other high-risk adults be vaccinated with COVID-19 booster shot, the vaccination rate of booster has dropped to the lowest level.

So far, only 28 percent of the population in the country has completed the booster vaccination, leading to worries and concerns of many public health experts.

The European Region recorded over 165 million COVID-19 cases and 1.8 million deaths in total, said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge in a statement on Tuesday.

Around 25,000 people lost their lives to the coronavirus in the past week, Kluge said, adding the local health systems have been overstretched under increasing strain, with rising infections among health-care workers.

As risk remains high in eastern Europe and central Asia with arrival of COVID-19 Omicron variant, Kluge called on governments, health authorities and relevant partners to closely examine the local reasons influencing lower vaccine demand and acceptance, and devise tailored interventions to increase vaccination rates urgently.

As of the 0:00 Tuesday, Germany’s case count of COVID-19 had reached 12,580,343, which is 159,217 higher than the previous day, according to the data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.

The seven-day infection incidence per 100,000 people fell three days in a row to 1,437.5, the RKI said.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on Tuesday said the country could start easing restrictions as weeks of case surge has been suppressed and a wave of infections with the Omicron variant is subsiding.

Britain on Tuesday reported 46,186 new COVID-19 cases and 234 deaths, bringing the national case count to 18,393,951 and the death toll to 159,839, according to its health ministry.

The number of new confirmed cases and deaths registered in the past seven days in Britain decreased by 27.6 percent and 35.5 percent, respectively, from the previous week.

While in Asia, Japan confirmed more than 84,000 new infections on Tuesday, taking the cumulative total to over 4.07 million, according to the NHK.

A record high of 236 deaths were also reported in the country, taking the national death toll to 20,772.

In addition, nearly 100,000 children across Japan were infected with the coronavirus in January, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

South Korea’s daily number of COVID-19 cases hit a record high amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus, the health authorities said Wednesday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country reported 90,443 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the total tally to 1,552,851.

The daily caseload was up from 57,177 in the previous day, topping 90,000 for the first time in the Asian country.

Thirty-nine more deaths were confirmed from the pandemic, bringing the death toll to 7,202. The total fatality rate was 0.46 percent.

Indonesia confirmed 57,049 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest in two months since Omicron infections were first detected in the country, raising its tally of infections to 4,901,328, said the country’s health ministry.

According to the ministry, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country rose by 134 to 145,455, while 26,747 more people recovered from the disease during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,349,848.

New Zealand recorded 1,203 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, including 1,160 community cases and 43 imported ones, said its health ministry in a statement. It is the first time for the daily cases to surpass the 1,000 mark since the beginning of the pandemic in the country.

To date, New Zealand has reported a total of 23,127 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the ministry.