COVID Cases Are Dropping Except In These 5 Hot Spots

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. are dropping at a rapid pace as the COVID vaccine rolls out to Americans across the nation, but this isn’t the case for some other countries.

While the U.S. reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly a year last week, according to data from Reuters, countries such as India, Nepal, and Argentina are seeing their positive cases of the virus continue to increase.

The U.S. also said new infection of the virus dropped 26% from the previous seven days to just under 180,000 for the week. New COVID-19 deaths fell 5% to under 4,000 in the week ending May 23, the lowest number of weekly deaths since March 2020, Reuters said.

Widespread vaccinations are fueling those figures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that over 130 million Americans had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, accounting for 39.3% of the U.S. population.

But countries like India are struggling to gain a foothold against the pandemic. India’s coronavirus cases are spiking, and it is now considered the epicenter of the virus. The country has over 26.9 positive coronavirus cases and over 307,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.

Also topping the list of countries with rising coronavirus cases is Argentina. The South American country has over 3.5 million positive cases of the virus and more than 74,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to data from the university.

Argentina has reported increasing daily cases, which rose to more than 39,000 last Wednesday, and deaths, which increased to 744 last Tuesday. The outbreak has forced officials to extend new lockdowns until the end of May, CNBC reported.

Nepal has also seen its cases of the coronavirus rise to 513,000 and deaths to 6,300, Johns Hopkins reported. The country, which shares a border with India, is claiming that migrant workers from the neighboring country are the cause of the rise in the COVID-19 cases, NBC News said. The country is now reporting more than 9,300 coronavirus cases a day, a record high for Nepal, Johns Hopkins data suggests.

Bahrain is also a location with growing COVID cases, as more than 218,000 positive virus cases have been reported and at least 820 COVID-19 deaths, according to John Hopkins.

Positive COVID cases in Bahrain rose to 2,000 a day last week, up from 600 day, in early March, the university’s data indicated. But COVID-19 deaths have remained low as the country has vaccinated a large portion of its population, CNBC said.

Taiwan has reported a total of more than 4,300 coronavirus cases and 23 COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

The country avoided a full lockdown at the height of the pandemic but has now seen daily cases reach past 200 in the last week, according to data from the university. The vaccination rate in Taiwan is one of the lowest in the world at only 0.14%, CNBC said.