Another sad milestone: half a billion reported corona infections, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher. The WHO warns that the pandemic is not over yet.
The number of confirmed corona infections worldwide has exceeded the 500 million mark. Since the first cases discovered in China at the end of 2019, 500.19 million infections and 6.19 million deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, according to the WHO data portal.
This indicates the status as of Thursday evening (8:36 p.m.). At the same time, 11.3 billion vaccine doses had been administered. The renowned Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, announced around 503 million infections worldwide on Friday.
Actual numbers are probably much higher
According to WHO calculations, the true number of infections is likely to be much higher anyway. On the one hand, little testing has always been done in many countries due to a lack of test material and capacities. On the other hand, the industrialized countries have also significantly reduced their tests.
For example, only 8.7 million infections have been reported to the WHO from Africa so far. In studies in several African countries, however, significantly more corona infections have been detected. The WHO therefore assumes that two thirds of the approximately 1.3 billion Africans have already been infected with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. The number of actual infections is believed to be 97 times greater than the reported confirmed cases.
Most infections according to WHO in Europe
Most infections were reported to the WHO from the Europe region, totaling 209.5 million cases. Behind was the American continent with 151.7 million.
The WHO warns against considering the pandemic over as the number of infections falls. In many poorer countries, even people who are particularly at risk – the elderly and nursing staff – are still not sufficiently vaccinated. As long as the virus circulates and many people are not protected, new and dangerous variants could develop and spread in the world, against which the current vaccine does not sufficiently protect.
Source: Stern
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