Coronavirus Global Roundup, May 6: Cases surge in Germany, UK death toll crosses Italy's, study finds new virus strain

More than 3.75 million people worldwide have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, of which 259,406 have died and 1.25 million have recovered.

Two French doctors said yesterday that SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, was present much earlier in Europe than was previously believed. The virus was reportedly found in the clinical samples of a 43-year-old man who was hospitalized (for pneumonia) in December. This was at least a month before the virus officially reached Europe.

Meanwhile, health officials in Illinois County, USA have also said that the novel coronavirus may have entered the USA weeks before the first case was officially confirmed; it may have been mistaken for the flu. The health officials are planning to look into pneumonia and heart attack cases in the area as far back as November 2019 to look for possible signs of COVID-19.

New Zealand reported new cases, cases surge again in Germany

After two days of zero cases, New Zealand saw two new cases and one death in the past 24 hours. Both cases have shown up in areas where the country had clusters of cases before. Out of the two cases, one is confirmed and other is still in the suspected category. The confirmed case showed up in a student and is a weak positive, reportedly showing that the person may be in a late stage of the disease already and is not likely to be highly infectious. Still, the student will be kept in isolation as a precautionary measure.

Death toll in Spain rose above 200 again after reducing for six days in a row. On Wednesday, the country reported 244 deaths bringing the death toll to 25,817.

Germany also noted a surge in new cases after showing a reduction in total cases for six consecutive days. On May 5, the country saw 855 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 167,007. Germany is reportedly set to change its decision to further relax restrictions in May.

UK death toll surpassed Italy and Russia cases go up by 10,000 again

The death toll in the UK has surpassed that of Italy’s now. About 29,315 people have died of COVID-19 in Italy while in the UK, 29,427 have succumbed to the disease. However, Spain is the worst-hit country in Europe right now.

For the fourth day in a row, Russia saw more than 10,000 new cases. COVID-19 cases in the country rose by 10,559 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 165,929.

USA shows no significant improvement, cases rise above 10,000 in the Philippines

The USA confirmed 24,798 new cases on Tuesday with 2,350 deaths. As of now, more than 1.2 million people are infected by the coronavirus in the country and 72,275 people have died of the disease. More than 200,000 have already recovered.

Mike Pence, Vice President, USA, reportedly said today that the coronavirus task force will be dismantled in June because of the tremendous progress the country has seen.

With 320 new cases on Wednesday, the total number of cases in the Philippines crossed 10,000. About 658 people have so far died of the disease in the country.

A new strain of coronavirus found

A recent study indicated that a new strain, G-strain, of SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in Europe in early February and was introduced into the USA and Canada in March.

Initially, the D-strain was prevalent in all these countries while the original Wuhan strain was dominant in Asian countries but now the G-strain is quickly dominating in Asian countries too. The new strain has a mutation in the spike protein, the protein that determines how SARS-CoV-2 will bind to healthy cells. Since most vaccine candidates target this protein, the study raised concerns on the efficacy of the current vaccine candidates.

As per the study, people infected with this strain have shown higher viral load — more virus in their body — proposing that this strain may be more contagious, though it has not been proved yet.

The study is still in the preprint phase and has not been peer-reviewed.

For more information, read our article on Viral mutation: FAQs

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