Saturday April 25, 2020 ~ WORLD | CANADA | BC
by Mary Brooke, B.Sc. ~ West Shore Voice News
Today April 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) released their 96th daily situation report with the tallies of test-positive cases of COVID-19 and the number of deaths.
Are we knee-deep or neck-deep into this pandemic? On the public health side, some countries have dealt with the worst of it now (such as China), while others are in the thick of it (such as the USA), and still others are moderating their experience so it’s manageable (such as here in Canada) but it still continues.
The WHO’s first report was issued on January 21 (showing 258 cases in Hubei Province in China, a few more in other areas of China, and just four casies outside China — specifically Japan/1, South Korea/1, and Thailand/2), for a total of and 282). This means we’ve all been at this pandemic thing for over three months even though the society/economy-wide lockdown in BC and Canada didn’t start rolling out until around day 52 after the pandemic was declared on March 11.
Was the timing right?
Public health officials have been heard to say in both Canada and the US that there ‘wasn’t much appetite’ for lockdown-type measures until the official word came from WHO.
In that respect, WHO could be faulted for taking too long to officially declare the pandemic, but in the broader picture they were correct do a socio-political dance with China as a way for attentive western nations to get prepared without drawing too much ire (such as restriction on release of data or on the shipment of personal protective equipment) from China. Countries and provinces that did not take heed in February may look back on that as a preparatory misstep.
Global COVID-19 stats at April 25:
Getting into the data … there have now been over 2.7 million test-positive cases (2,719,897 to be exact) of COVID-19 around the world, with 93,176 of those just in the last day. Worldwide there have been 187,705 deaths (5,767 reported in the last day).
CHINA: China as the original epicentre of the COVID-19 virus today at April 25 shows only 14 new cases in the last 24 hours, and no new deaths. Their official total death count stands at 4,642.
EUROPE: Relatively speaking, things have subsided in Spain with ‘only’ 367 deaths in the last 24 hours (total death count staggering, however, at 22,524) and Italy still deals with the ravages of COVID-19 with 420 deaths in the last 24 hours (and an even higher total death count at 25,969).
The highest death count reported today in Europe is in the UK at 768 new deaths today (but so far with a total below Spain and Italy, at 19,506).
Included by WHO in the European Region, the Russian Federation reports 68,622 cases but only 615 deaths, which seems very low compared the reports from most other countries.
IRAN: In Iran — where the virus seemed to hit hard similarly to China, the case count is 88,194 (higher than China’s) but their death count at 5,574 is still rising (93 deaths in the last day) compared to China at zero.
USA: The USA now records more total cases than China. The cases reported by the USA for April 25 tally at 860,772 with 44,053 deaths (1,742 of which are new in the last 24 hours).
CANADA & BC: According to WHO, Canada shows 42,739 cases and 2,197 deaths (169 in the last day). In BC, Ontario and Quebec, most of the deaths have occurred among the residents of long-term care homes. BC has 1,948 test-positive COVID-19 cases as of 1 pm today, and 100 deaths.
To compare, Canada (with about 10% of the population size of the USA), has about half as many cases per capita compared to the USA, and for deaths Canada has also about half as many per capita compared to the USA.
Once bitten, then immune?
In their April 25 report, WHO ponders the immunity question. “Although some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate”, there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”