MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. The number of cases of the coronavirus infection worldwide has increased by 2.5 mln over the past seven days. According to TASS calculations, this is almost half the number of cases recorded during the first week of 2021.

In all, 110.3 mln cases of the infection have been recorded worldwide. Approximately three quarters of the infected have already recovered.

Against the background of a sharp drop in incidence, the mortality has also decreased although not as sharply. Some 73,000 coronavirus patients died over the past seven days which is 15% less than the week before. The lethality of the novel infection has remained at the level of 2.2%.

A sharp decline

In a number of countries where record highs in terms of the number of infections were registered at the beginning of the year, the incidence lowered to autumn values and continues to drop.

In the US, where in January 260,000 infections on average (or up to 300,000 on some days) used to be detected daily, now the coronavirus infection is confirmed approximately in 70,000 people every day.

In the UK last month, the number of detected cases approached 70,000 a day while now it is about 20,000. A similar trend is observed in continental Europe: in Germany, the incidence decreased three-fold to 7,500 daily cases, in Spain - by a factor of 2.5 (12,000 daily cases), in the Czech Republic - by a factor of 1.5 (9,000 daily cases).

The sharpest decline is observed in South Africa. Lately, slightly over 2,000 infections have been detected there daily which is 11 times less than the figures at the beginning of the year.

New waves in Latin America

In Latin America, a new surge of incidence is observed which marked a third wave for a number of countries.

For example, in Peru, where the first wave was recorded in the spring, and the second - at the end of the summer, the rates of the spread of the infection have sharply gone up. The day before, 9,700 infections were registered in the republic becoming the second highest value since the beginning of the pandemic. At the same time, in Chile the situation has entered a plateau - for the second week on average 3,500 daily cases have been seen there.

In Brazil, the incidence went down after peaking in early January, yet last week the country again has been documenting over 55,000 daily infections. In all, over 10 mln Brazilians have already been infected and if the rates of the spread of the infection continue to grow, by spring Brazil may overtake India and become the second country worldwide in terms of the number of infections.

Mortality

In some countries, where the peak of mortality was registered at the beginning of the year, now the figures have noticeably decreased. For example, the US has been documenting a 1.5-fold decrease in fatalities compared to early January - approximately 2,000 a day.

In the UK, about 550 coronavirus patients have been dying daily recently which is half the numbers at the beginning of the year while in Russia for almost a week the number of fatalities caused by the coronavirus has not surpassed 500 a day.

However, in Mexico the mortality is still at its peak with over 1,000 daily fatalities caused by the novel virus.