Surging Covid-19 spike spreads anxiety across the world

By OBINNA EZUGWU

Across the globe, new surge in Coronavirus cases is putting governments and individuals on edge. Spurred by lifting of lock down measures, the virus is staging, it would seem, a vicious comeback. On Tuesday, total global cases rose to 22 million, with more than 774,220 dead.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy and most populous country, recorded the highest number of infections in almost four months, prompting concerns about a resurgence of new cases in Europe. Trying to avoid more drastic restrictions after the vacation season winds down, officials in Spain and Italy have closed nightclubs while Greece has limited hours for restaurants and bars.

South Korea increased social distancing restrictions on August 18 as it reported a three-digit increase in infections for a fifth day in a row. Officials also scrambled to locate hundreds of members of a church congregation and, two days after restarting stricter social distancing in Seoul, extended the measures to the port city of Incheon. Nightclubs, karaoke bars, buffets, and cyber cafes were also ordered to close.

“If we can’t get the virus under control now we’ll have to notch up social distancing to higher levels, and that would have a big impact on our economy and people’s livelihoods,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told reporters after an emergency meeting.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific regional director, Takeshi Kasai, said he is concerned that new infections are being driven by people in their twenties, thirties, and forties, many of whom have no symptoms and are unaware they were infected and posing a danger to vulnerable groups.

Meanwhile, an increasingly common mutation of the virus found in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia may be more infectious but seems to be less deadly, according to  Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases.

In the United States, cases of have remained stubbornly high with an average of 51,100 daily infections in the past seven days. The country now has 5.47 million cases with over 171, 000 deaths.

“The COVID-19 crisis has presented a real threat to the US position of global dominance,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in an August 17 article written for money manager Advisors Capital Management, where he serves as a senior economic adviser.

“As political tensions heat up between the world’s two largest economies, the balance of power that will result is still unclear, but becoming of increasingly greater concern by the day.”

The Democrats started their virtual national convention with attacks against US President Donald J. Trump for his handling of the pandemic and the shattered economy.

In Africa, South Africa continues to boss the figures with 589,886 cases and 11,982 deaths, followed by Egypt with 96,590 cases and 5,173 deaths, while Nigeria now has 49,485 cases and 977 deaths.

Cases are also rising rapidly in South America. In Brazil, cases have risen to 3.4 million with 109, 000 dead. Up Central, in Mexico, cases  now stand at 562, 000 with over 57, 000 deaths. Argentina now has 299, 000 cases and nearly 6000 deaths.

Australia has also seen cases rises speedily in recent weeks, but reintroduction of lock down measures appear to have begun to achieve results. The country detected 226 new infections in the past twenty-four hours, the lowest since July 18 when 212 cases were recorded, Reuters reported. That added to hopes a strict lockdown in Victoria, the second-most populous state, has prevented a fresh wave of cases nationally.