April 9, 2021 – The worldwide situation took a bad turn this week, with Brazil and India publishing their worst numbers in months, ending the week with the 4th highest global daily report: +786,168 new cases on Friday. The new wave is carving more aggressive epidemiological curves in many countries, with the highest yet single-day death tolls in Brazil, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Bangladesh, Hungary, Philippines, and unseen before leaps in new daily cases in India, Argentina, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Mali, Ethiopia. Other countries are also experiencing significant rises of new cases in Canada, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Pakistan, Qatar, Sweden, Tunisia, and even Japan. The European countries, currently in month-long lockdowns, are starting to show improved daily numbers but will wait out the remaining enforcement weeks while increasing their vaccine deployments. India is now in deep trouble, jumping from an already high 96,564 new daily cases total on Monday, matching the country’s previous high point, to 144,829 new infections on Friday, dwarfing its highest peak of the pandemic by a 50% hike. Global deaths were up 10%, with new cases up 8% since last Friday. 4,459,483 new covid-19 infections were confirmed worldwide, while the virus and its variants killed 77,340 people globally in the last seven days, the highest weekly global death toll in two months.

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As indicated in the pie charts below, the top five most infected countries account for half of the global cases and 44% of the deaths, while only representing 27% of the world’s population. 

Although many western and central states are reporting improved numbers, the US is, once again, experiencing an increase in new weekly cases, with sudden spikes fueling the buildup of a new infectious wave in Michigan (+29%), Illinois (+18%), Pennsylvania (+13%), Minnesota (+13%), Ohio (+8%), Florida (+8%), and Maryland (+3%). The new surge, although more modest than last week's, added 13,272 more cases to the weekly total compared to last week’s (+3%), with 478,465 new cases reported in the last 7 days. Friday’s national total (+85,368) is the highest report since February 13, and the second of the week with 80K+ new daily infections. The death toll is still clearly on the descent with 12% fewer fatalities reported this week (+5,415). the government has announced that 33% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and the single-dose J&J vaccine is now being distributed nationally, in addition to the Moderna and Pfizer products. The situation couldn't be clearer: there is a race between the rise of new cases and the rise of vaccinations nationwide, let us hope the latter wins.

COVID-19 in the USA

This week, California's 18,487 new coronavirus infections total is essentially flat from last week's report (-0.64%), however, fatalities fell abruptly -47%, with 672 deaths counted since last Saturday in the entire state of California, compared to the previous week's 1,279 total. Mass vaccinations in California are accelerating and now available to all aged 16 and older.

Including its prison population, Madera County is averaging 12 new cases per (7.6 per 100K), with 85 new cases revealed over the last 7 days (+3 week-to-week), and 7.5 new cases per 100K over the last 14 days, anchoring the county in the red "substantial" contagion risk tier.

Today, the seven local counties together reported 404 new infections and 11 new coronavirus deaths. In the combined 7 counties, COVID-19 has infected 326,286 people and has killed 4,686 residents of our region since it claimed its first central valley victim, in Madera, on March 26, 2020.

For the last seven days, there were 13% fewer new infections in the seven local counties than were counted the previous week. This week's fatality report was also down to 55, the lowest total since Thanksgiving 2020. 55% (2,566) of the total 4,686 covid-19 deaths, and 33% (108,299) of the total 326,286 infections recorded in the local counties have occurred since January 1, 2021.

Keep observing the simple yet proven safety habits of physical-distancing, mask-wearing, and frequent hand-washing, that will help drive down new infections and new deaths, to a level low enough so as to give us a chance to reopen our schools for onsite education and thus, reopen our economy. Nothing else will work until we have massively administered a safe and effective covid-19 vaccine -- currently estimated by vaccinating up to 85% of the population -- to finally reach herd immunity.