Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I update a chart with the total number of reported positive COVID-19 cases in every state and country where we offer tours, plus a few more. I then compare this total with the totals one week and two weeks before to see trendlines. I color code trends:
- Green: low rate of new transmission (less than 10% increase in one week; 20% in two weeks)
- Blue: not yet green but improving
- Yellow: increasing rate over one or two weeks
- Orange: US: over 20% increase in one week or 40% in two weeks; Countries: over 40% increase in a week; over 80% in two weeks
- Red: doubling within two weeks
These are my observations for Sunday, June 7, 2020:
I am pleased to say that most countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania are now in the “green zone” meaning that they are seeing a few new cases in the past two weeks. Leading the way are New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Uruguay, Taiwan, and Vietnam where there are frequently days with no new cases.
Canada, Ecuador, Singapore and Japan all saw fairly high rates a month ago but are now showing improvement.
The most rapid increases are occurring in Brazil, Russia, and India. Brazil and Russia were both slow to acknowledge that the coronavirus could have a big impact. India started shutting down very quickly in mid-March, but this virus has been very stubborn, especially in the crowded slums of Mumbai and other cities.
Although most parts of the United States have reopened businesses with varying restrictions, the US still represents 28% of the world’s total number of positive COVID-19 cases. I’ll discuss trends in specific states in a future posting.
