The number of those infected by COVID-19 in Mainland China reported an increase, now with a total of 80,270 confirmed cases, reversing a three-day decline in numbers. The uptick of new infections is reported in Wuhan. This is according to the tally of John Hopkins CSSE as of March 4.

Dominated by recoveries

While the numbers of cases in China is high, it should be noted that 61.8% of these cases are now recoveries. Meanwhile, 34.5% remains to be unresolved and under monitoring.

China also recorded the highest death toll at 2981 deaths, which is 3.7% of all the recorded cases in the country thus far.

Heavily-stricken countries

Among the other countries where COVID-19 cases are quite numerous would be South Korea. With a total of 5621 confirmed cases, it is the country with the second largest number of infected residents next to China. So far, there are 28 recorded deaths due to the virus.

Succeeding South Korea is Italy, with a total of 2502 COVID-19 cases as of the recent tally. Currently, there are 79 COVID-19 related deaths while there are 160 people who managed to recover. Italy is the only European country among the five territories that have the highest number of cases.

Iran has the fourth highest number of recorded COVID-19 cases, with 2336 people infected. Among these, 79 died while 291 recovered.

Meanwhile, Japan has the fifth highest figure in terms of the confirmed COVID-19 cases at 293. So far, there are six recorded deaths and 43 recoveries. 

Other countries with significant number of cases

In Europe, other countries with a considerable number of cases include Germany (244), France (212), Spain (193), Switzerland (68), and the  United Kingdom (53).

Meanwhile, in North America, the United States has 128 COVID-19 cases so far. On the other hand, Canada has 33 cases.

In Asia which is in closest proximity to the epicentre, China, other countries which recorded a considerable number of infected citizens include Singapore (110), Hong Kong (102), Kuwait (56), and Malaysia (50).

In each of these countries, the number of deaths is fortunately small and Singapore has no reported casualties so far. Hopefully, this will continue to be the case in the following days.

The road ahead

According to Reuters, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of fatalities worldwide due to COVID-19 at 3.4%.

Given this, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urges countries to increase their preparations for infected patients that are turning up in hospitals. He also reminded that health workers must be protected as well.

He also addressed the growing problem of shortage in protective gear, calling on manufacturers to accelerate and to increase production in order to meet the demands. According to him, the world supply of protective gear should be increased by about 40%.

“Containment of COVID-19 is feasible and must remain the top priority for all countries. There is no one-size fits all approach. WHO is advising countries on actions they can take for each of the scenarios – first case, first cluster, first evidence of community transmission,”  Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.

If you want to monitor your country’s current status in terms of the confirmed COVID-19 cases, the interactive database from Johns Hopkins CSSE is being regularly updated. You may want to check it out.