Daily COVID-19 data update XCVI: Looney Tunes

Graphs day 96, pandemic day 103, day 173 since the first cases were diagnosed.

Total cases of COVID-19 diagnosed worldwide: 8,795,672

Total deaths: 466,189

Worldwide cases by day, shown as actual cases in blue and smoothed cases in red, showing the overall trend:

Cases of COVID-19 reported each day worldwide. The blue line is the actual reported number of cases; the red line is the smoothed number of cases (10-day moving average smoothing), showing the overall trend. Click for a larger version.

Notice that worldwide cases are clearly trending up again. It seems that every time we think the case rate has plateaued, it starts to increase again. Daily cases now stand at 19.3 per million people worldwide, even though the world’s two largest countries (China and India) are doing pretty well.

As usual, let’s look first at the case history of countries where the daily rates are at least headed in the right direction:

Countries where newly-reported cases per million people are steady or decreasing (click for a larger version)

A friend described the curve for Qatar as a “Looney Tunes graph,” which I think is a wonderfully appropriate name. Eventually Qatar will Looney Tune its way back down onto the main graph. The good news is that the curves for all countries on the graph are definitely on their way down, even Russia.

Next graph, countries where epidemics continue to get worse:

Countries where the epidemic is still getting worse (click for a larger version)

Chile has also Looney Tuned its way off this graph, with no sign of when they will return to the main graph. Sweden looks like it might finally be on its way down; if cases continue to decrease over the next few days, I’ll move Sweden onto the “headed in the right direction” graph.

Coming tomorrow: a closer look at cases and deaths in the United States.

Want to try out some of these graphs for yourself? You can get the data that I used to make these graphs from the European Centers for Disease Control’s Coronavirus Source Data; choose “all four metrics.” You’re still welcome to use my Excel template – I added a section for making the deaths graph to what is now verison 4.1, so that is the only one you need.

Update tomorrow, and every day after that until this pandemic comes to an end.

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