The pandemic is experiencing a wave of exponential increase in positives, which is believed to be linked to the rise of the omicron variant.
The year 2021 closes with 198 million confirmed global COVID infections in these 12 months, more than double the 83 million in 2020, while the deaths were 3.5 million, 84% more than the 1.9 million of the past year, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The figures, although still very high, show a decrease in the lethality of the coronavirus, which was 2.2% in 2020 and 1.7% according to these figures, which the WHO admits are conservative, since the real numbers they may have been higher because of the many undiagnosed cases and deaths.
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In the cumulative two years since the health crisis began with the notification of the first cases in China to the WHO, COVID-19 has registered 281 million confirmed cases and 5.4 million deaths.
The pandemic is one of the most serious in history, although its figures are still far from those caused by the bubonic plague at various times, or the 1918-20 flu, which caused tens of millions of deaths.
The pandemic is experiencing a wave of exponential increase in positives, which is believed to be linked to the rise of the omicron variant, with a record number of 1.3 million confirmed infections on December 29, although this “tsunami of infections”, as defined by the WHO, it is not accompanied by an increase in deaths.
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The year 2021, dedicated to the vaccination of the largest possible number of people against COVID-19, also ends with 9.15 billion vaccines administered in the world, with which 58% of human beings have received at least one dose, according to the data provided by the national health networks.
A dozen countries exceed 80% vaccination rates, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Spain, China, South Korea, Portugal or Cuba, although almost a hundred States have not achieved the goal that the WHO had set to achieve a rate of at least 40% in all territories. (I)
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