OVERVIEW: Covid situation in some key countries.

Covid-19 around the world: how are some key countries faring? Coronavirus cases appear to be mostly falling as nations race to get their populations vaccinated the Guardian

With some notable exceptions – including the UK – where confirmed infections have begun climbing again, the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases appears, once more, to be fading in many countries around the world.

But that situation may not last. What happens next will depend mainly on two factors: whether (or when) the far more transmissible, and possibly more dangerous, Delta variant takes hold as it has in Britain; and how fast populations get vaccinated.

As Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s Europe director, put it: “We have been here before.” Infections ebbed last summer, too, only for a new strain to send them soaring again. Vaccinating urgently, and maintaining public health measures, will be key, he said.

As Boris Johnson prepares to postpone the UK’s final step out of lockdown for up to month, here is how other countries are faring; data is from OurWorldInData, with daily deaths, infections and vaccine doses stated as rolling seven-day averages.

Argentina’s daily cases surged from 149 per million in mid-March to a peak of 734 in mid-May, when it went into a nine-day lockdown. Numbers are falling but along with Uruguay, Colombia and Bahrain, Argentina is one of only four major countries in the world exceeding 500 daily cases per million. ...

Australia continues to keep an almost clean coronavirus sheet, with daily new cases of just 0.4 per million – unchanged since mid-March – and deaths averaging zero. But it is vaccinating 0.46% of the population a day, less than half the EU rate, and has partially jabbed about 20% of it population and fully vaccinated only 2.7%. Seven people in an outbreak in Victoria last week were identified as having the Delta variant, which the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said could mean Australia’s borders will remain shut with no end in sight.

Daily infections in Brazil have remained at a high average of more than 310 per million since mid-March and show little sign of falling soon, although daily deaths have fallen from a three-month peak of nearly 15 per million to nine on Sunday. ...

New cases in France have plunged from a recent high of 675 per million in April to 59, with daily deaths following a similar trajectory from 5.4 per million to 0.83.  ... Nearly 45% of the population have received one dose and 21% are fully vaccinated. According to a 10 June government update, the Delta variant represented 0.5% of new cases in France, but senior health officials have warned the country is in “a race against time”. ...

(Following included: Germany, India, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, US)