The Coronavirus pandemic in the world continues to accelerate and claim victims and, although Europe seems to have the first wave behind it, new outbreaks continue to arise here and there in the Old Continent which, in some cases, are leading to targeted lockdowns.

The World Health Organization is concerned: “Last week Europe saw an increase in the number of weekly” Covid-19 cases “for the first time in months,” warned director of the European section, Hans Kluge, during a press conference. “Thirty countries have seen an increase in the number of new cases in the past two weeks,” he added. According to the WHO, Europe records around 20,000 new cases and over 700 new deaths every day.

The virus spreads like a shadow in endless and populous countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia. Which arrives in countries completely unprepared to handle the emergency. In the whole Latin America where the sick die on the street; in Ecuador and Chile there are outbreaks. In India, the gradual easing of the quarantine conditions imposed on 1.3 billion people led to a rapid increase in infections, 10 thousand a day, is the estimate of last week.

The total number is now higher than that of the United Kingdom and India is the fourth country in the world most affected by the pandemic. While the Supreme Court reports inhuman conditions in hospitals with “sick people treated worse than animals”, Maharashtra, the western state of the financial capital Mumbai, is the epicenter of the pandemic with 100 thousand cases, more than all of China.

Another Asian country, where the virus has slowly, silently infiltrated itself is Pakistan. Here too, the reopening on 9 May dictated by economic urgency led to a record increase in infections in the first days of June.

There were 45,300 new coronavirus cases in the United States on Friday, never so many since the start of the pandemic. The previous day had been almost 40 thousand. These are the latest updated data from Johns Hopkins University. Compared to two weeks ago, there are 31 US states where cases have increased again, with the most critical situations in Texas and Florida. Overall, since the start of the pandemic, there have been 2,467,864 coronavirus cases in the United States, the number of victims 125,039.

Despite the strong pressure exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hope that each of us places in scientific research, the future use of a vaccine must necessarily be preceded by rigorous studies that require the time necessary to evaluate its effectiveness and safety. The World Health Organization has announced that currently (as of April 23) there are 83 potential vaccines against Covid-19 under evaluation, 7 of which have been approved to be tested on humans through clinical trials.

This is news that bodes well, even if the fear will not disappear until there are concrete results.

By Domenico Greco