The rate of COVID-19 infections in Europe appears to be slowing, even as Germany rockets past 1 million cases and Poland looks poised to do so today. Germany says its lockdowns will continue while the Czech Republic will relax some of its restrictions. Other countries have already projecte that their lockdowns will last for months.
Cases have also peaked in the U.S., but this may be a result of less testing due to the long Thanksgiving weekend, which is not celebrated in Europe, of course. Testing peaked before Thanksgiving as many families wanted proof that their loved ones were coronavirus-free. Then it dropped off later in the week as the holiday resulted in slower than normal testing rates. We’ll know more by mid-week as cases should either rocket upwards or continue to slowly drift downwards.
Hospitalizations in the U.S. have set new records every day for weeks, and now stand at 93,219. There were 136,313 reported cases yesterday and 818 deaths, both of which are well below the weekly average, likely a result of the lower holiday weekend testing and related activity discussed above.
Weekly Report
Here’s a table demonstrating the rise of cases in the past week :
After roaring up the charts in the past month, France actually dropped a tick as Russia surpassed it to take the number four spot. Germany, which has passed the 1 million mark, and Poland, which is only 10,000 away from doing so, both overtook Peru, which fell two spots. Iraq also jumped a spot.
While several European countries are still seeing double digit growth, the rate of growth has slowed across our chart.
CORRECTION: Data reported for Mexico last week appears to have been corrupted, resulting in an artificially high result. This has be corrected in this week’s data.
News Coverage
Here are a couple of interesting news articles on COVID-19 you may have missed
- What NO ONE is Saying About the Lockdowns: they are responsible for as much or more death and destruction as the virus itself, and the damage may be even longer lasting as all this excessive protection against germs may be damaging the developing immune systems of children.
- How the Swiss Cheese Model Can Help us Beat COVID-19. An interesting and insightful look at how we need more than a single strategy. I found the Swiss Cheese model to be an interesting analogy and quite easy to explain to others.
If you found this article useful, you may be interested in last weeks report.