On the Global Pandemic for Week Ending June 20Number of Cases WorldwideAs of June 20, the worldwide statistics for COVID-19 pandemic as reported by Worldometer were: - Total reported cases: 8,757,734. This is 982,744 more than the total reported on June 13 of 7,774,990. This compares to the increase in cases in the previous week of 1,722,729. - Total active cases: 3,669,770. This is 310,747 more than the number reported on June 13 of 3,359,023. The increase in total active cases compared to the previous week was 97,238. - Closed cases: 5,087,964. This is 671,997 more than the number reported on June 13 of 4,415,967. This compares to an increase in the previous week of 653,798. - Deaths: 462,519. This is 33,566 more deaths than on June 13, when the toll was 428,953. This compares to an increase in the previous week of 30,367. - Recovered: 4,625,445. This is up 638,431 from the June 13 figure of 3,987,014 and compares to an increase the previous week of 623,431 recoveries. There were 181,005 new cases on June 19, a new all-time high, which compares to 143,421 reached June 5. The number of new daily cases ranged between 124,455 to 181,005 over the past week. Overall, these figures indicate an increasing rate of new and active cases over the previous week. There are 28 countries/territories without active cases this week, down from 29 the previous week. They are Isle of Man (336 cases; 312 recovered; 24 deaths); Montenegro (324 cases; 315 recovered; 9 deaths); Faeroe Islands (187 cases, all recovered); Gibraltar (176 cases; all recovered); Brunei (141 cases; 138 recovered; 3 deaths); Aruba (101 cases; 98 recovered; 3 deaths); Sint Maarten (71 cases; 62 recovered; 15 deaths); French Polynesia (60 cases, all recovered); Macao (45 cases; all recovered); Timor-Leste (24 cases, all recovered); Grenada (23 cases; all recovered); New Caledonia (21 cases; all recovered); Laos (19 cases, all recovered); Dominica (18 cases; all recovered); Fiji (18 cases, all recovered); Saint Kitts and Nevis (15 cases, all recovered); Greenland (13 cases, all recovered); the Malvinas (13 cases, all recovered); the Turks and Caicos (12 cases; 11 recovered; 1 death); Vatican City (12 cases; all recovered); the Seychelles (11 cases, all recovered); Montserrat (11 cases, 10 recovered; 1 death); Papua New Guinea (8 cases; all recovered); British Virgin Islands (8 cases; 7 recovered; 1 death); Caribbean Netherlands (7 cases; all recovered); St. Barth (6 cases, all recovered); Anguilla (3 cases, all recovered); Saint Pierre et Miquelon (1 case, recovered). The five countries with the highest number of cases on June 20 are noted below, accompanied by the number of cases and deaths per million population: USA: 2,297,190 (1,219,722
active; 956,077 recovered; 121,407 deaths) and 6,941 cases per million;
367 deaths per million Brazil: 1,038,568 (469,118 active; 520,360 recovered; 49,090 deaths) and 4,887 cases per million; 231 deaths per million - June 13: 831,064 (361,502 active; 427,610 recovered; 41,952 deaths) and 3,911 cases per million; 197 deaths per million Russia: 569,063 (236,816
active; 324,406 recovered; 7,841 deaths) and 3,899 cases per million;
54 deaths per million India: 395,812 (168,636 active;
214,206 recovered; 12,970 deaths) and 287 cases per million; 9 deaths
per million UK: 301,815 (active and
recovered N/A; 42,461 deaths ) and 4,447 cases per million; 626 deaths
per million Looking at the trend over the past week for the 10 countries with the highest number of cases, the U.S. number of new cases is trending upward from 20,161 to 33,539 by the end of the week. In Russia the number of new daily cases has been trending slightly downwards from 8,835 to 7,790 in the past week. In Brazil and India, the number of new daily cases is still rising. Brazil ranged from 17,086 new cases on June 14 to 55,209 on June 19, the latter a new peak. India has added from 11,135 new cases on June 15 to 14,721 on June 19, the latter a new peak. The European countries overall have had a marked decline in new daily cases and daily deaths. Daily new cases in Peru and Chile appear to have peaked in the last week. Iran is still in the midst of a second wave. Cases in Top Five Countries by RegionIn Europe on June 20, the four other European countries with the highest number of reported cases after the UK, listed above, are Spain, Italy, Germany and France: Spain: 292,655 (active and
recovered N/A; 28,315 deaths) and 6,259 cases per million; 606 deaths
per million Italy: 238,011 (21,543 active;
181,907 recovered; 34,561 deaths) and 3,936 cases per million; 572
deaths per million Germany: 190,660 (7,300 active;
174,400 ; 8,960 deaths) and 2,276 cases per million; 107 deaths per
million France: 159,452 (55,718 active;
74,117 recovered; 29,617 deaths) and 2,443 cases per million; 454
deaths per million The European Commission on June 16 recommended that the travel restrictions already in place for all non-essential travel to the EU from third countries be extended until June 30. Last week, European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva
Johansson urged the 26 countries that make up the Schengen zone within
Europe to lift internal border controls by June 15, to allow a gradual
reopening to other countries from July, Reuters reports. The Schengen
area consists of 22 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway
and Switzerland, which under normal circumstances permit control-free
border crossings. News reports indicate that governments are keen to
reduce travel restrictions so that the tourism industry can reopen. European countries have been lifting travel
restrictions in varying measures in the past week. As a broad
generalization, many countries are still putting restrictions on those
countries that have a high number of daily new cases, either outright
barring entry to travellers from those countries, or requiring testing
or a 14-day quarantine upon entry. In West Asia on June 20: Iran: 200,262 (31,678 active;
159,192 recovered; 9,392 deaths) and 2,385 cases per million; 112
deaths per million Saudi Arabia: 150,292 (53,344
active; 95,764 recovered; 1,184 deaths) and 4,319 cases per million; 34
deaths per million Qatar: 85,462 (19,960 active;
65,409 recovered; 93 deaths) and 30,437 cases per million; 33 deaths
per million UAE: 44,145 (12,849 active;
30,996 recovered; 300 deaths) and 4,465 cases per million; 30 deaths
per million Kuwait: 38,678 (8,175 active;
30,190 recovered; 313 deaths) and 9,062 cases per million; 73 deaths
per million In South Asia on June 20: India: 395,812 (168,636 active;
214,206 recovered; 12,970 deaths) and 287 cases per million; 9 deaths
per million Pakistan: 171,666 (104,780 ;
63,504 recovered; 3,382 deaths) and 778 cases per million; 15 deaths
per million Bangladesh: 108,775 (63,357
active; 43,993 recovered; 1,425 deaths) and 661 cases per million; 9
deaths per million Afghanistan: 28,424 (19,563
active; 8,292 recovered; 569 deaths) and 731 cases per million; 15
deaths per million Sri Lanka: 1,950 (493 active;
1,446 recovered; 11 deaths) and 91 cases per million; 0.5 deaths per
million In India, the nationwide lockdown ended on May 31, while in certain containment zones it has been extended until June 30. On June 8, temples, mosques and churches were permitted to reopen, along with restaurants and hotels, in a process dubbed "Unlock 1." The rate of daily new cases continues to rise, with a new all-time high mark of 13,103 set on June 17. The number of confirmed cases is said to be doubling every 18 days. Daily deaths continue to rise as well, usually around 400, but with a huge one-day spike of 2,006 on June 16, said to be due to counting technicalities. Time magazine reported on June
18 that "On Monday [June 15], the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, one of
the worst-hit states in the country, said a stringent [12-day] lockdown
would be reimposed in the south Indian city of Chennai and its
surrounding districts, beginning on Friday [June 19]. Confirmed cases
in the city have now passed 48,000. And earlier in June, the deputy
chief minister of Delhi warned the number of cases in the capital could
rise as high as 550,000 by the end of July, requiring 80,000 hospital
beds -- more than eight times the city's current capacity." The
situation in poorer and rural areas is worse, due less health
infrastructure and higher population densities. Despite this situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a virtual meeting on June 17, "advised chief ministers to prepare for the next phase of unlocking the country, dispelling rumours of a fresh round of nationwide lockdown in the wake of the COVID pandemic," the New Indian Express reported. "Asking chief ministers to speed up economic activities, he said, 'We now need to think about Unlock 2.0 and how to minimize all possibilities of harm to our people.' Modi urged them to take steps to boost activities related to infrastructure and the construction sector." India does not appear to have met the WHO's six criteria for governments to meet to start lifting lockdowns: 1. Disease transmission is under control; 2. Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact"; 3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes; 4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures; 5. The risk of importing new cases "can be managed"; 6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal. The Indian government is also interfering with the work of journalists to keep the public informed. A June 18 report from The Wire, informs that "A recent report said that at least 55 reporters and editors have been booked or arrested or threatened by different police departments and district administrations for reporting on the COVID-19-induced lockdown. The Uttar Pradesh police has been particularly aggressive against scribes who highlighted the poor state of affairs during the lockdown. "In end-March, when the lockdown had just begun, two journalists Vijay Vineet and Manish Mishra of a local daily Janadesh Times, were sent show cause notices by the Varanasi district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma. The two had filed a report on a viral video which showed children of the Musahar community eating grass to survive at Koiripur village in the Prime Minister's constituency. "Similarly, in April, the UP police filed two FIRs [first information reports] against one of the founding editors of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, for a news report about chief minister Yogi Adityanath violating the national lockdown to take part in a religious event in Ayodhya on March 25. "Such was the enterprise of the UP police to take action in the case that a team of state police officials drove down 700 kilometres in the middle of the lockdown on April 10 to Varadarajan's New Delhi residence to serve him a summons." In Southeast Asia on June 13: Indonesia: 45,029 (24,717
active; 17,883 recovered; 2,429 deaths) and 165 cases per million; 9
deaths per million Singapore: 41,833 (8,348
active; 33,459 recovered; 26 deaths) and 7,152 cases per million; 4
deaths per million Philippines: 28,459 (19,951
active; 7,378 recovered; 1,130 deaths) and 260 cases per million; 10
deaths per million Malaysia: 8,556 (289 active;
8,146 recovered; 121 deaths) and 264 cases per million; 4 deaths per
million Thailand: 3,147 (71 active;
3,018 recovered; 58 deaths) and 45 cases per million; 0.8 deaths per
million The rate of new daily cases in Indonesia has been increasing over the last month, reaching more than 1,000 over the past week, with the result that Indonesia now has the most recorded cases in region, surpassing Singapore in the past week. There is a decreasing rate of new daily cases in Singapore, about 250 or less in the past week, and in Malaysia, which on June 19 had only six new cases. Meanwhile, the Philippines has been adding more than 500 new cases per day throughout June. In East Asia on June 20: China: 83,352 (308 active;
78,410 recovered; 4,634 deaths) and 58 cases per million; 3 deaths per
million Japan: 17,740 (797 active;
16,008 recovered; 935 deaths) and 140 cases per million; 7 deaths per
million South Korea: 12,373 (1,237
active; 10,856 recovered; 280 deaths) and 241 cases per million; 5
deaths per million Taiwan: 446 (5 active; 434
recovered; 7 deaths) and 19 cases per million; 0.3 deaths per million From June 11 to 17, Beijing reported 158 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases. The WHO reported on June 13 that it is following up with Chinese authorities about a cluster of COVID-19 cases in Beijing. As of June 13, there were 41 symptomatic laboratory confirmed cases and 46 laboratory confirmed cases without symptoms of COVID-19 have been identified in Beijing. The WHO was briefed by China's National Health Commission and Beijing Health Commission briefed WHO's China country office, to share details of preliminary investigations ongoing in Beijing. The WHO has offered support and technical assistance, as well as requested further information about the cluster and the investigations underway and planned. The first identified case had symptom onset on June 9, and was confirmed on June 11. Several of the initial cases were identified through six fever clinics in Beijing. Preliminary investigations revealed that some of the initial symptomatic cases had a link to the Xinfadi Market in Beijing. City authorities tightened the control of personnel flow on June 18. All cases are in isolation and under care as needed, and contact tracing is underway, Xinhua reports. Genetic sequencing of samples is also underway and rapid sharing of these results is important to understand the origin of the cluster and links between cases. In North America on June 13: USA: 2,297,360 (1,219,876
active; 956,077 recovered; 121,407 deaths) and 6,942 cases per million;
367 deaths per million Mexico: 170,485 (22,759 active;
127,332 recovered; 20,394 deaths) and 1,323 cases per million; 158
deaths per million Canada: 100,629 (29,280 active;
63,003 recovered; 8,346 deaths) and 2,667 cases per million; 221 deaths
per million Although the number of active cases is flattening and daily deaths are decreasing in the U.S., various states are reporting significant outbreaks. CNN reported on June 18 that: "Ten U.S. states saw a record number of new COVID-19 cases this week, and one of them could be the next epicenter of the pandemic. "Florida reported 3,207 additional coronavirus cases on Thursday [June 18] -- the largest single day count in the state since the pandemic, according to Florida Department of Health. Florida's total reported cases climbed to nearly 86,000, according to data released by the state. "The Sunshine State has 'all the markings of the next large epicenter of coronavirus transmission,' and risks being the 'worst it has ever been,' according to [June 17] projections from a model by scientists at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. "'The potential for the virus to take off there is very, very nerve-racking and could have catastrophic consequences' because of the state's aging population and the prevalence of nursing homes and retirement communities, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told CNN on Thursday. "Florida joins nine other states -- Alabama, Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas -- that are seeing record-high seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases per day, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. "Twenty-three states are seeing an upward trend in new coronavirus cases, and health experts continue to stress the importance of taking precautions to reduce the virus's spread. Despite the rising number of cases, the White House has downplayed the risks [...] "States reporting spikes in new cases will have to re-implement 'significant levels of social distancing' to contain the spread, Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN's New Day on Thursday. "'We've never finished the first wave,' Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, said of spikes in new cases in Florida, Texas and Arizona. 'We didn't complete that social distancing period that we needed to do.' "Models showed states needed to extend stay-at-home orders through May, according to Hotez. "'Things opened up prematurely,' he said. "According to data from Johns Hopkins University: - 23 states are seeing upward trends in newly reported cases from one week to the next: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. - Eight states are seeing steady numbers of newly reported cases: Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Utah. - 18 states are seeing a downward trend: Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin. - One state, Vermont, has seen a decrease of at least 50 per cent." Indigenous peoples in the U.S. are being marginalized during the pandemic. Politico in a June 11 report informs that "Federal and state health agencies are refusing to give Native American tribes and organizations representing them access to data showing how the coronavirus is spreading around their lands, potentially widening health disparities and frustrating tribal leaders already ill-equipped to contain the pandemic. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has turned down tribal epidemiologists' requests for data that it's making freely available to states. Authorities in Michigan and Massachusetts since early spring have also resisted handing over information on testing and confirmed cases, citing privacy concerns, and refused to strike agreements with tribes on contact tracing or other surveillance, eight tribal leaders and health experts told POLITICO. In some instances, officials questioned tribes' legal standing as sovereign entities. "The communication gaps threaten to hinder efforts to track the virus within Native populations that are more prone to illness, disability and early death and have fragile health systems. Tribal authorities say without knowing who's sick and where, they can't impose lockdowns or other restrictions or organize contact tracing on tribal lands. The lack of data also is weighing on epidemiologists who track public health for the nearly three-quarters of Native Americans who live in urban areas and not on reservations." In Central America and the Caribbean on June 20: Dominican Republic: 25,068
(9,816 active; 14,605 recovered; 647 deaths) and 2,312 cases per
million; 60 deaths per million Panama: 24,274 (9,430 active;
14,359 recovered; 485 deaths) and 5,629 cases per million; 112 deaths
per million Guatemala: 12,509 (9,607
active; 2,419 recovered; 483 deaths) and 699 cases per million; 27
deaths per million Honduras: 11,258 (9,695 active;
1,214 recovered; 349 deaths) and 1,137 cases per million; 35 deaths per
million Haiti: 4,980 (4,869 active; 24
recovered; 87 deaths) and 437 cases per million; 8 deaths per million In South America on June 20: Brazil: 1,038,568 (469,118
active; 520,360 recovered; 49,090 deaths) and 4,887 cases per million;
231 deaths per million Peru: 247,925 (104,745 active;
135,520 recovered; 7,660 deaths) and 7,523 cases per million; 232
deaths per million Chile: 231,393 (35,809 active;
191,491 recovered; 4,093 deaths) and 12,108 cases per million; 214
deaths per million Colombia: 63,276 (37,243
active; 23,988 recovered; 2,045 deaths) and 1,244 cases per million; 40
deaths per million Ecuador: 49,731 (21,129 active;
24,446 recovered; 4,156 deaths) and 2,820 cases per million; 236 deaths
per million In Brazil, Chief Paulinho Paiakan, one of the most internationally recognized defenders of the Amazon rainforest died on June 17 of COVID-19, activists informed. The founder of Amazon Planet Gert-Peter Bruch said the leader died at a hospital in the northern locality of Redençao, in the state of Pará, Brazil after 19 days of having caught the coronavirus, adding that he "worked all his life to build worldwide alliances around indigenous peoples to save the Amazon. He was far ahead of his time. We've lost an extremely valuable guide." Paiakan, leader of the Kayapo people, was best-known as the guardian of the Amazon, after heading several fights to protect the rainforest against the exploitation of its natural resources. In 1980, the Indigenous chief lead a fight against the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon. To prevent the company from damaging the rainforest and its communities, he forged alliances with other Indigenous groups, international activists and celebrity backers, and was a lead organizer of the Altamira gathering, a 1989 conference that rallied opposition to the project. Paiakan and other community leaders fought the battle to include the Indigenous people's right to land in Brazil's 1988 constitution. He also fought to expel illegal miners and loggers from Indigenous areas and often criticized Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro about the intention to expose the Amazon rainforest to massive agricultural infrastructure and mining. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) described Paiakan as a "father, leader and warrior" for Indigenous peoples and the environment. According to figures compiled by APIB, deaths from COVID-19 in among the country's 900,000 Indigenous people have risen from 46 on May 1 to 262 on June 9. Together with numbers tallied by state health departments around the country, APIB's statistics show that 9.1 percent of Indigenous people who contract the disease are dying, nearly double the 5.2 percent rate among the general Brazilian population. Amidst the political crisis of the Bolsonaro government and its refusal to address the pandemic, it is also reported that government health care workers who tested positive for the coronavirus while deployed to work in Indigenous villages, as well as others who did not observe proper quarantine protocols, along with illegal mineral prospectors and others intruding into Indigenous territories, have introduced COVID-19 into the vulnerable Indigenous communities. Brazil's Indigenous peoples are already under great pressure from environmental destruction and direct attacks. A recent statement by three UN experts and a rapporteur from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights decried the fact that over the last 15 years, Brazil has seen the highest number of killings of environmental and land defenders of any country, up to an average of about one every week. In Bolivia, a similar situation exists among the Indigenous communities. On June 17, Miguel Vargas, Director of Bolivia's Center for Legal Studies and Social Research (CEJIS) said that the coup regime led by de facto president Jeanine Añez neglects the Amazon's Indigenous communities during the pandemic, teleSUR reports. Supporters of the reactionary Añez and others involved in removing democratically elected President Evo Morales from office, carried out terrible crimes against the Indigenous peoples as part of the coup. "Concerning the Indigenous peoples, the government has not given any response to the problem; in any case, it has made the situation worse," Vargas stated. "The situation is critical in the Yuqui and Cayubaba villages, which are demographically very small. The possibility of a virus expansion and having a high number of deaths is latent and is very worrying," the CEJIS director explained. Health care available to the Yuqui people is almost non-existent and many cannot access government programs for assistance because they have no official identity records. On June 14, the Yuqui communities reported three COVID-19 deaths and 11 deaths suspected to be due to COVID-19. Vargas also explained that there is an under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths and infections among Indigenous groups, as they lack sanitary supplies, diagnostic and clinical tests. "The government has limited attention to the pandemic to the urban area and has forgotten about the rural area," Vargas added. Indigenous peoples in Ecuador also face a dire situation. On May 30, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concerns about the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths among Amazon's Indigenous people in Ecuador. Overall, Ecuador is one of the worst hit countries in South America, while the social programs and development carried out under the Correa government has been undermined by the betrayal of President Lenin Moreno. "The IACHR alerts the [Ecuadorean] state to the special vulnerability of Indigenous peoples and recalls the need to take extreme measures to guarantee their right to health through intercultural, gender and intergenerational solidarity approaches," the Commission said in a statement on Twitter. Indigenous community leaders have also spoken out about their communities being abandoned during the crisis, with state authorities unable to conduct tests and dismissing initial members presenting symptoms. In the absence of responsibility taken by the Ecuadorean government, NGOs and non-state actors such as the Confederation of Amazonian Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONFENAIE) had to take the situation in hand, sourcing and delivering tests and translating safety protocols into native languages among other duties. Amazon's Indigenous peoples including the Kichwa, Waorani, Achuar, Shuar, and Siekopai original nations, are being dangerously threatened by the pandemic, IACHR warned. In Africa on June 20: South Africa: 87,715 (38,059
active; 47,825 recovered; 1,831 deaths) and 1,480 cases per million; 31
deaths per million Egypt: 52,211 (36,266 active;
13,928 recovered; 2,017 deaths) and 511 cases per million; 20 deaths
per million Nigeria: 19,147 (12,079 active;
6,581 recovered; 487 ) and 93 cases per million; 2 deaths per million Ghana: 13,203 (8,585 active;
4,548 recovered; 70 deaths) and 425 cases per million; 2 deaths per
million Algeria: 11,504 (2,483 active;
8,196 recovered; 825 deaths) and 263 cases per million; 19 deaths per
million Africa as a region has 289,009 cases as of June 20. On June 11, the UN High Commission on Refugees reported on the situation it is facing in its work in Africa. It reported that: "The West and Central Africa region has seen a 22 per cent percent increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past week with a total of 73,664 contamination as of June 16 compared to 60,678 on June 9, 2020. "The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating in Africa and moving from the continent's main urban centers into the remote rural areas where it will be more challenging to contain the spread of the virus. "With the rainy season starting in the region, UNHCR operations strengthened their preparedness and emergency response mechanisms to mitigate the potential impact of floods in high risk hosting areas." In Oceania on June 13: Australia: 7,436 (453 active;
6,881 recovered; 102 deaths) and 292 cases per million; 4 deaths per
million New Zealand: 1,509 (0 active;
1,482 recovered; 22 deaths) and 302 cases per million; 4 deaths per
million Guam: 192 (5 deaths) French Polynesia: 60 (all
recovered) and 214 cases per million New Caledonia: 21 (all
recovered) (With files from Euractiv, Al Jazeera, Xinhua, CNN, Reuters, Politico, teleSUR, National Geographic)
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