Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe, is starting to see the number of new cases of Coronavirus cases start to fall, although the number of cases overall continues to rise.
The peak in the country was four days ago, on March 21, when 6,557 new cases of the virus were reported. Two days later the number was down to 4,789 and, although yesterday the number increased again to 5,249, that is still 20% below the peak.
A week after South Korea hit its peak, which was much lower than major European countries at just 851 cases on March 3, the number of new recorded cases had dropped by 87%.
The UK is on a trajectory similar to heavily affected countries such as Spain, France and Germany, so it likely to see new case numbers rise at a similar pace despite the current shut down.
That could see new cases per day rise to around 5,000 per day within the next week, but there is hope that the number of new cases could peak at that level and begin to fall, boosting morale for a troubled nation.
In Germany, for example, the peak number of new cases was on March 21 at 4,528 cases. Yesterday, the number of new cases was down to 3,935, a drop of 17%.
France had a drop yesterday after a peak of 3,838 new cases on Monday, but it is too early to say whether that is the start of a trend.
Spain’s new cases numbers continue to rise.
