The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the end of the state of emergency declared in January 2020 in connection with the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic caused by this disease has become the most significant health crisis of the 21st century.
Incidence in 2019-2021
The outbreak of the disease caused by infection with the new coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. On January 30, 2020, the WHO recognized the epidemic as an international emergency. On March 11, the WHO declared a pandemic of the disease, which was named COVID-19 (short for Corona Virus Disease).
In mid-February 2020, the number of infected people in China peaked at 15,000 per day. Subsequently, thanks to coordinated anti-epidemic measures by the authorities (the commissioning of new hospitals, restrictions on movement, strict quarantine, and sanctions for non-compliance), the rate of increase slowed significantly. Having reached 80,000 infected by the end of February 2020, by the end of 2021 this figure had grown by only 35,000.
The infection spread from China to other countries. During January and February 2020, most countries introduced restrictive measures such as a state of emergency, curfews, quarantine, and restrictions on movement, and a number of businesses were suspended. Anti-epidemic measures slowed the spread of the infection, but after the restrictions were lifted, the incidence rate rose again. Several waves of the pandemic were recorded during 2020-2021, and several strains of the coronavirus were identified. By the beginning of 2022, the total number of confirmed cases exceeded 285 million, meaning that almost 4% of the world’s population had been infected with the coronavirus, and 5.5 million people had died.
Incidence in 2022-2023
In January 2022, 90 million cases of COVID-19 were recorded worldwide, which is comparable to the total number of cases in the second half of 2021. The highest number of cases — about 20 million — were detected in the US in a month, while France recorded a maximum of over 500,000 There were further spikes in India (with a peak of 350,000 cases per day), Argentina (140,000), Poland, and the Czech Republic (around 55,000). 98% of all infections were caused by the omicron strain, which was detected in November 2021. The overall incidence rate then began to decline, falling to 24 million new cases in April. However, in early May, the WHO reported an increase in incidence in more than 50 countries worldwide, caused by the spread of sub-variants of the omicron variant. At the same time, according to the WHO, the level of hospitalizations and deaths was relatively low compared to previous waves of the pandemic, which, according to epidemiologists, was due to “relatively high immunity among the population.”
After a slight decline in June 2022, there was a renewed trend of increasing new cases, which the WHO attributed to the lifting of restrictive measures. In most European countries, the peak of COVID-19 spread occurred in July (an increase was recorded in at least 110 countries worldwide). The authorities in some countries (Cyprus, Qatar, Pakistan) reinstated mask mandates. In August, the highest rates of infection spread were recorded in Japan, where more than 6 million new cases were detected in a month.
By the beginning of 2023, most countries around the world had lifted their main COVID restrictions, and at the beginning of the year, some countries reclassified COVID-19 as seasonal flu. To date, according to Johns Hopkins University, which compiles data based on information from federal and local authorities, the total number of confirmed cases is 676 million (8.4% of the world’s population, which currently stands at over 8 billion people). The number of victims of this disease is 6.8 million, making it one of the deadliest in history.
Vaccines and vaccination
Since December 2020, mass vaccination has been underway around the world. Authorities in many countries have taken measures to encourage the population to get vaccinated (financial incentives, participation in lotteries), or have introduced mandatory vaccination at the regional level or for certain categories of the population (primarily healthcare workers). According to WHO statistics, more than 13.3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide to date, with more than 5.5 billion people receiving at least one dose and 5.1 billion people fully vaccinated.