Excess deaths
321
Mexico
Mar - Feb - '21182
United States
Mar - Mar - '21412
Peru
Apr - Mar - '2196
Sweden
Mar - Mar - '21161
Belgium
Mar - Mar - '21-5
South Korea
Mar - Jan - '21Regional excess deaths per 100.00 people.
COVID-19 Mortality data is not perfect. The official statistics in many countries exclude victims who did not test positive for COVID-19.
See how excess deaths and COVID-19 deaths compare.

TRACKING COVID-19 EXCESS DEATHS ACROSS COUNTRIES
In many parts of the world, official death tolls undercount the total number of fatalities.
As COVID-19 has spread internationally, people have become grimly familiar with the death statistics their governments publish each day. Unfortunately, the total number of fatalities caused by the pandemic may be even higher - for several reasons.
Firstly, the official statistics in many countries exclude victims who did not test positive for coronavirus before dying - which can be a substantial majority in places with little capacity for testing.
Secondly, hospitals and civil registries may not process death certificates for several days, or even weeks, which creates lags in the data. And thirdly, the pandemic has made it harder for doctors to treat other conditions and people were discouraged from going to hospital.
This may have indirectly caused an increase in fatalities from diseases other than COVID-19.
One way to account for these methodological problems, is to use a simpler measure, known as “excess deaths”. Take the number of people who die from any cause in a given region and period and then compare it with a baseline from recent years. We have used statistical models to create our baselines by predicting the number of deaths each region would normally have recorded in 2020.
NOT A "CLASSIC" FLU SEASON
The chart below uses data from EuroMOMO, a network of epidemiologists who collect weekly reports on deaths from all causes in 24 European countries, covering 290m people.
These figures show that, compared with an historical baseline of 2009 - 2019, (even with Europe suffering some deadly flu seasons since 2016) the death toll this year from COVID-19 is far greater. Overall, the number of excess deaths across the continent since March is about 170,000. Though most of those victims have been older than 65, the number of deaths among Europeans aged 45-64 was 40% higher than usual in early April.
Below is a second set of charts, comparing the number of excess deaths and official COVID-19 deaths over time in each country. The lines on each chart represent excess deaths and the shaded area represents the number of fatalities officially attributed to coronavirus by the government.

RESPONSE LEVEL STRICTNESS
Belgium
April 18China
April 18Germany
April 18Brazil
April 18India
April 18United Kingdom
April 18United States
April 18Australia
April 18How do governments react to a world epidemic?
Closures, bans, face masks and other restrictions.
See government response to the world epidemic.

COVID-19: GOVERNMENT RESPONSE STRINGENCY INDEX, SEP 5, 2020
The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) systematically collects information on several different common policy responses governments have used to tackle the pandemic. It details 18 indicators, such as school closures and travel restrictions and now has data from more than 180 countries.
The nine metrics used to calculate the Government Stringency Index are: school closures; workplace closures; cancellation of public events; restrictions on public gatherings; closures of public transport; stay-at-home requirements; public information campaigns; restrictions on internal movements; and international travel controls.
THE RACE FOR A VACCINE
261
vaccines in progress
203
in preclinical development58
in human trialsWhich teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine or treatment?
Watch how the race for a vaccine evolves.

Vaccine and therapeutics
Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. Work began in January 2020 with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March and now 12 have reached the final stages of testing. Some of these trials will fail and others may end without a clear result. But a few vaccines may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus. While these vaccines may potentially prevent infection, they cannot cure the disease.
Vaccine tracker
Before a medicine comes onto the market, it has to go through 4 phases. From pre-clinical research to phase 4, when a drug can actually be sold. Most candidates are eliminated along the way.
Phase 3
Vaccine Prospects
It’s too soon to say which vaccines will have the most successful outcome, but here’s a look at the prospects that have ended phase 3:
PFIZER
One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, based in New York, in collaboration with German biotech company BioNTech.
This vaccine candidate relies on injecting snippets of mRNA into human cells to trigger an immune response. This vaccine requires two doses taken 21 days apart.
The Pfizer vaccine is currently being successfully distributed and administered in the UK, European Union and the US.
Moderna Therapeutics
A Massachusetts-based biotech company, in collaboration with National Institutes of Health.
This vaccine candidate also relies on injecting snippets of a virus’s genetic material (mRNA) into human cells. It spurs the production of viral proteins that mimic the coronavirus, training the immune system to recognize its presence. Any successful vaccine based on this technology would be the first mRNA vaccine approved for human use. This vaccine requires two doses, four weeks apart.
The vaccine has been proved to be 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 (including severe cases of the disease) without any significant safety concerns. On December 18th, 2020 Moderna achieved FDA approval.
Oxford University AND ASTRAZENECA
Oxford University together with AstraZeneca a British/Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company, with its headquarters in Cambridge, England.
Positive high-level results from an interim analysis of clinical trials of AZD1222 in the UK and Brazil showed the vaccine was highly effective in preventing COVID-19 with no hospitalisations or severe cases of the disease reported in participants receiving the vaccine. There was a total of 131 COVID-19 cases in the interim analysis.
On November 23rd, 2020 AstraZeneca announced that the vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. The Data Safety Monitoring Board determined that the analysis met its primary endpoint, showing protection from COVID-19 occurring 14 days or more after receiving two doses of the vaccine. AZD1222 was well tolerated across both dosing regimens. It is now FDA approved and being successfully rolled out and applied in the UK, European Union, Argentina, India and other countries.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON
One of the world’s largest multinational corporations, based in New Jersey, specializing in healthcare and pharmaceutical products.
On January 29th, 2021 Johnson & Johnson announced the results of its phase 3 ENSEMBLE trials, which showed that this single-dose vector vaccine is 66 percent effective overall at preventing COVID-19.
Not yet approved for use. But Johnson & Johnson have filed for an emergency use authorization in the U.S. An FDA meeting is scheduled for February 26th and a decision could follow shortly afterwards. Johnson & Johnson expects to start shipping doses as soon as it is authorized.
NOVAVAX
A biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
A protein vaccine that involves a nanoparticle carrier to better aid delivery and uptake by cells. The vaccine is administered in two doses, 21 days apart.
Not yet approved for use. But a rolling review of this vaccine with multiple regulatory authorities, including in the U.S., U.K., European Union, and Canada, began on February 4th, 2021. Approval could be granted as soon as April.
GAMALEYA
A Russian research institution, in partnership with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund.
A viral vector vaccine that uses two strains of adenovirus and requires a second injection after 21 days to boost the immune response.
In August 2020, Russia cleared the Sputnik V vaccine for widespread use and claimed it as the first registered COVID-19 vaccine on the market, even though the vaccine’s phase 3 trials hadn’t even begun.
Subsequently, phase 3 trials have now been completed in Moscow. The Lancet reported on February 2nd that the Sputnik V vaccine was found to be safe and 91.6 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. The study, which involved more than 22,000 participants, also showed the vaccine is 100 percent effective in preventing moderate or severe cases of the disease. It has now been approved in Belarus, Argentina, Venezuela, and other countries.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations
The economy
-7.2%
Europe
-2.6%
Africa (Contintent)
-4.3%
United States
-3.3%
Developing countries
-4.4%
World
+1.9%
China
GDP growth annual (2020) per selected region.
GDP (gross domestic product) is most commonly used to measure a region's overall economic activity over a specified time period, one year for example.
See how COVID-19 affects the worldwide economy.

Global economic
indicators
It’s hard to navigate every twist and turn of the $90 trillion global economy. To help, Bloomberg created a real-time dashboard of key economic indicators from every corner of the world. Selected by their economics team and updated as new statistics are released, it will provide insight on the strength or softness of expansions and recessions.
Click the image below to open the Dashboard (on Bloomberg.com).
gdp growth
To contain the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries locked down hard in the first half of 2020. The result was massive contracted economic activity on a global scale. But with the tentative reopening of many economies during May and June came a gradual recovery.
Although, the easing of lockdowns can lead to a partial bounce back, economic activity is likely to remain subdued until health risks abate. And while the swift economic recovery in China has taken many people by surprise, it seems the global economy has an awful long way to go before reaching the levels of pre-pandemic days.
See the global GDP change during 2020 below.
INFLATION RATE, AVERAGE
CONSUMER PRICES
The CPI measures the average change in prices over time that consumers pay for a basket of goods and services, commonly known as inflation. Essentially, it attempts to quantify the aggregate price level in an economy and thus measure the purchasing power of a country's unit of currency. The spread of COVID-19 has led to sweeping changes in the way households work, spend their time and shop. Unsurprisingly, large changes in spending patterns have occurred and, in some cases, prices have rapidly changed.
You can track the inflation rate per country below.
Among the countries with available GDP data, there is no evidence of a trade-off between protecting people’s health and protecting the economy. Rather, the relationship we see between the health and economic impacts of the pandemic goes in the opposite direction. As well as saving lives, countries controlling the outbreak effectively may have also adopted the best economic strategy.