No sign of stopping as we hurtle past 20 million

Police check details of a resident in the Melbourne central business district on Sunday. Picture: William West/AFP

As Victoria produced the nation’s most deadly day in the COVID-19 pandemic fight, the world also passed a series of grim milestones, revealing the relentless progress of the disease.

The US passed five million cases. Brazil passed three million. And India passed two million.

Brazil also recorded the grim statistic of more than 100,000 deaths, while Mexico, approaching half a million cases, exceeded 50,000 deaths. India, with nearly 45,000 deaths, will soon displace Britain with the fourth-highest number of deaths.

The world was also set to pass its 20 millionth confirmed infection overnight.

Meanwhile, some countries that thought they had got through the worst are seeing the virus come back with savage force. France recorded its highest number of daily infections, at 2200, since it ended its lockdown in June. And there is a fear that the disease is about to accelerate across Africa.

The increased speed and momentum of COVID-19 in the US is seen in the shortening length of time that each new million infections has taken to achieve.

A New York Times data set shows the US getting to its first million infections on April 28, the second million on June 10, the third million on July 4, the fourth million on July 23 and now the fifth million.

Overall, about 1000 Americans a day are dying of COVID-19. This is less than half its mid-April peak when New York’s health system was very nearly overwhelmed, but it is still much higher than was the case even a few weeks ago.

The US has recorded about 165,000 deaths from the virus.

As medical authorities have got to know more about how to treat the virus, and some drugs have emerged that increase the chances of survival in extreme cases, most First World nations have been able to lower the virus’s overall mortality rate.

Around the world, apart from aged-care facilities, some of the highest infection rates are among doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

The improvements in survival rates are heartening. However, as The Weekend Australian reported on Saturday, there is growing scientific consensus that a significant proportion — perhaps as high as 20 per cent — of people who recover will have long-term, possibly permanent medical conditions arising from their illness.

Australia’s Acting Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, said: “We don’t know yet if these long-term effects are permanent, but certainly there is evidence of long-term issues with lung damage and damage to blood vessels around the body, including the heart. This can be a very severe illness”

A number of the nations that have fared the worst in recent weeks — particularly Brazil and the US — have national governments that have at times tried to understate and play down the seriousness of COVID-19.

The US has the highest number of infections in the world and Brazil the second highest.

In deaths per million of population, the US is lower than a ­number of European nations but higher than most nations in the world.

For per capita infections, which may be a misleading measure ­because many nations do not test extensively, the US ranks eighth.