Global COVID-19 Cumulative Cases Reach 200 Million... Variants Double in Six Months

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The global cumulative number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 200 million on the 4th (Korean time). This comes 1 year and 7 months after the first patient was reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019.

According to the international statistics site Worldometer, as of 7:30 a.m. on that day, the global cumulative confirmed cases exceeded 200.18 million, and cumulative deaths surpassed 4.25 million.

The cumulative confirmed cases exceeded 100 million on January 26 of this year, about 1 year and 1 month after the COVID-19 outbreak began, and it took only about half a year to reach 200 million since then. This is due to the dominance of variant viruses such as the UK-origin Alpha, South Africa-origin Beta, Brazil-origin Gamma, and India-origin Delta, which have higher transmissibility than the original virus and can also reduce vaccine effectiveness.

The cumulative confirmed cases in three countries?the United States (36.02 million), India (31.77 million), and Brazil (19.99 million)?alone exceed 87.78 million, accounting for about 44% of the total.

Russia and France also have cases in the 6 million range, the United Kingdom and Turkey in the 5 million range, and Argentina, Colombia, Spain, and Italy in the 4 million range.

The cumulative death toll is 4.26 million. The United States has the highest number with approximately 630,000 deaths, followed by Brazil (about 558,000), India (about 425,000), Mexico (about 241,000), and Peru (about 196,000).

As of the 2nd, the number of people who have completed vaccination is about 1.15 billion, representing 14.8% of the global population. Including those who have received at least one dose, the total reaches 2.23 billion, or 28.6% of the population.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.