Across the world, over 20 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed since the pandemic began. While every country in the world has reported confirmed cases, ten countries account for about 14 million cases which represents 70% of all cases reported globally.
The United States leads with cases confirmed with over 5.2 million cases representing about 26% of all the cases reported across the world.
Across the world, nearly 370 million tests have been conducted with China ranking highest having conducted over 90 million COVID-19 tests. China is followed by the United States which had conducted nearly 66 million COVID-19 tests.
But the United States ranks highest among the ten countries with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases followed by Russia and India. Mexico on the other hand ranked lowest, conducting less than 1.1 million tests. South Africa ranked sixth with 3.3 million tests.
Despite having the lowest number of COVID-19 tests conducted, Mexico has the highest case fatality ratio (CFR). In other words, among the ten countries with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, a patient has the highest chance of dying in Mexico where about 11% of all confirmed cases result in death against a global average of 4%.
Among the ten countries with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, South Africa has the second lowest CFR of 1.9% trailing Russia which has the lowest CFR (1.7%).
The United States’ COVID-19 CFR is 3.2% which is slightly lower than that of Colombia and Brazil (3.3%). The countries however have their CFRs below the global average of 3.7%.
Among the ten countries with the highest number of confirmed cases, the United States has the highest number (and proportion) of active cases. According to the data available as August 10, about 46% of confirmed cases in the United States are still active which is higher than the global average of about 32%.
Aside the United States, Colombia is another country that has a higher ratio of active cases that the global average with about 42% of confirmed cases still active.
At the other end of the spectrum, Chile has the lowest ratio of active cases with less than 5% of total confirmed cases still active, this is followed by Iran where about 93% of all confirmed cases are no longer active. South Africa ranked fifth with only about 25% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 still active.
Among the ten countries with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the United States alone account for about 37% of all deaths, followed by Brazil (22.4%), Mexico (11.6%) and India (10%).
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, described COVID-19 as a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.
“Many countries that believed they were past the worst are now grappling with new outbreaks. Some that were less affected in the earliest weeks are now seeing escalating numbers of cases and deaths. And some that had large outbreaks have brought them under control,” Tedros said.