COVID-19 Cases Around the World by Myra Khan

Many countries in Northern Europe have come close to sustaining their covid cases, whereas the US is getting farther from that goal. Asian-Pacific countries such as New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and many European countries, have had very few cases show up weekly. This means their attempts to stop the pandemic have been successful. Countries such as Estonia have only had 12 infections in two weeks, but other countries with bigger populations, like Ireland have had 148. Almost all restrictions in Estonia have been removed, apart from maintaining 6ft distances and avoiding large gatherings.

The pandemic has caused a large range of public health responses and crisis around the world. However, countries like Sweden have not put severe restraints on their efforts and allowed the virus to spread, putting their citizens at risk and ultimately increasing their cases. New Zealand, a country that has had very few cases recently, went on a tight lockdown to prevent large spread for other countries. This effort to limit the spread of the pandemic has seen positive results, as the cases have decreased. Other countries have been in between the two options, Sweden - no preventative measures and New Zealand - preventative measures. When choosing how to prevent the spread of the pandemic, countries have had to consider their timing and their economic state. Now having to ultimately decide whether to reopen and risk a new increase of cases to save their economy, or stay closed to minimize the outbreak. Considering the previous steps taken by other countries, the US is nowhere near zero, regarding Covid cases. Therefore, it is best to disregard reopening once cases have decreased significantly more.