Zero COVID-19 deaths; over 1.1 million tests

TDT | Manama

There were zero lives taken by the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Bahrain yesterday. That kept the number of virus-related deaths reported by the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom at 189. Meanwhile, the ministry announced early this morning that out of 5,356 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 183 new cases were detected.

These included 43 expatriate workers, 138 contacts of active cases, and two travel-related cases. Their detection brought the overall number of confirmed registered cases in Bahrain to 51,574, dating back to when the first case was reported in February of this year. There were also 379 additional recoveries from the virus yesterday, bringing the Kingdom’s total number of discharged individuals to 48,654.

Following those recoveries, the total number of current active cases dropped to 2,731, with 34 receiving treatment, all of which are in critical condition. The remaining 2,697 cases are stable. The total tests conducted in Bahrain went past the 1.1 million mark, increasing to 1,100,729.

Worldwide numbers The official number of global COVID-19 cases is now at least five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organisation data. Latin America is the region with the most infections in the world, although some countries in the region are beginning to show a slight decline in infections.

The global pace of new infections has somewhat steadied. It has taken about three weeks for the caseload to jump by five million cases to 25 million. That, compared with the 19, 24 and 39 days it took, respectively, to add five million cases to the 20 million, 15 million and 10 million marks. The rate of new daily cases has slowed to around 1.2 per cent over August so far.

That compared with 1.7 per cent in July, 1.8 per cent in June, 2.1 per cent in May, 4.6 per cent in April and 7.7 per cent in March. Health experts stress that official data almost certainly underreports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with limited testing capacity.

While COVID-19’s trajectory still falls far short of the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected an estimated 500 million people, killing at least 10 per cent of patients, experts worry the available data is underplaying the true impact of the pandemic.