2 September
Globally, the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 have reached over 218,516,000 with more than 4,544,000 deaths reported.
In Latin America, Mexico has experienced a third wave of the virus far worse than previous ones.
Mexico reported a record high of daily confirmed cases on 19 August with over 28,000 new cases.
Additionally, Mexico’s case fatality rate is 7.74% as of 31 August; this is four times the case fatality rate observed in the top 10 economies combined (1.84%)*.
The positive test rate in Mexico has hovered between 34–40% since October 2020, indicating that community transmission is very high and not enough testing is being done.
As a result, the number of people infected is underreported and unaware they need to self-isolate, causing even more spread of the virus within their community.
In Uruguay, approximately 73% of the population is fully vaccinated, and the government has announced it will reopen its borders in September to allow entry of fully vaccinated visitors who own property.
Since late July, Uruguay has reported fewer than 10 daily deaths due to Covid-19.
However, their positive test rate is 11.5%, higher than the 5% threshold the WHO has recommended before countries re-open.
In Asia, Thailand has vaccinated approximately 11.2% of its population.
The current surge peaked on 13 August with 23,000 new cases reported.
However, the number of daily confirmed cases reported remains high, with a seven-day average of 15,900 new daily cases.
Despite this, restrictions on indoor dining have been lifted, which will likely lead to another increase in cases as vaccination rates are still low.
*Top 10 economies: Brazil, Canada, Mainland China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US.
Ana Fernandez Menjivar, MSc DLSHTM, Senior Epidemiologist at GlobalData
