WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up. Pakistan restricts domestic travel. The US government will send more aid to the state with the worst increase in infection in the country.
The global rise in coronavirus cases and deaths even includes Thailand, which weathered the pandemic much better than many countries, but is now struggling to contain COVID-19.
The only exceptions to the worsening situation are countries with advanced vaccination programs, especially Israel and Great Britain. The US, which is a global leader in vaccination, is also seeing a small rise in the number of new cases, and the White House announced on Friday that it would send federal aid to Michigan to curb the state’s worst transmission rate. to keep.
The World Health Organization said infection rates are on the rise in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many countries coming out of lock-up too soon.
“We’ve seen increases (in cases) worldwide for six weeks. And now, unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in the number of deaths in the past three weeks, ”said Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, at a briefing in Geneva.
In its weekly epidemiological update, the WHO said that more than 4 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in the past week. The number of new deaths is up 11% compared to last week, with more than 71,000 reports.
Increasing infections, hospitalizations and deaths are spreading to countries where vaccinations are finally gaining traction. That leaves an even bleak outlook for much of the world, where large-scale vaccination programs lie even further afield.
In Turkey, which is one of the hardest hit countries, most new cases of the virus can be traced back to a variant first found in Great Britain.
Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, said the wave was beginning to burden the country’s relatively sophisticated health care system and that “alarm bells are ringing” for intensive care units, which are not yet at full capacity.
“The mutated form of the virus causes more damage to the organs,” said Cinel. “While 2 out of 10 patients died before, it’s now 4 out of 10. And if we continue like this, we’ll lose six.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan relaxed COVID-19 restrictions in early March to minimize pain to his country’s ailing economy. The new spike forced him to announce new restrictions, such as weekend locks and the closure of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan, which begins April 13.
According to Turkish medical groups, the reopening in March was premature and the new measures do not go far enough. They have called for full lockdowns during the holy Muslim month.
In the US capital, President Joe Biden’s administration outlined how the federal government intended to help Michigan better manage doses already allocated to the state and expand testing capacity and drug availability. The effort will not include additional vaccine doses, a move that Governor Gretchen Whitmer was looking for.
Doses are currently allocated to states proportionally by population. Whitmer has called for additional doses to be shifted to states like hers, where the number of cases is on the rise. She also pushed for a two-week voluntary stop for personal high school classes, youth sports, and indoor dining, but stopped enacting new restrictions.
The death toll in Iran is also on the rise, leading to new restrictions that will take effect in 257 cities from Saturday 10 days. They include the closure of all parks, restaurants, pastry shops, beauty salons, shopping centers and book stores.
Authorities in Pakistan, in the midst of a third wave of infections, are restricting traffic between cities on weekends from midnight on Friday.
Elsewhere in Asia, authorities in Thailand imposed new restrictions on Friday in an effort to stem a growing coronavirus outbreak just days before the country’s traditional Songkran New Year holiday, when millions of people travel.
Japan, meanwhile, announced tougher measures in the run-up to the Summer Olympics.
In Germany, Poland and other countries of the 27 Member States of the European Union, vaccination programs are finally ramping up after a slow start in the first three months of the year due to a shortage of supplies.
Thousands of German medical practices joined the vaccination campaign this week. That helped Germany hit its second consecutive daily record of nearly 720,000 doses administered on Thursday – meaning 14.7% of the population has now received at least one dose and 5.8% has received both injections.
Still, German health officials are warning of a surge in the number of intensive care patients and calling for stronger measures to control infections.
Neighboring Poland is also seeing a dramatic spike in deaths, and hospitals have been forced to turn down cancer and other patients as ICUs and other hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients. Hospital admissions of virus patients there have increased by 20% in the past two weeks.
Harris, of the WHO, said the world knows how to combat these spikes. She cited good news from the UK, where the number of new coronavirus cases fell 60% in March amid a strong vaccination program, “but we all have to do it.”
“We have to keep a social distance. We must avoid overcrowded institutions indoors. We have to keep wearing the masks even after they’ve been vaccinated, ”she said. “People misunderstand and seem to think vaccination will stop transmission. That is not the case. We need to reduce transmission while allowing the vaccination to stop the serious disease. “
Associated Press writers from around the world contributed to this report.
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