Spanish
Bangkok.- Cases of covid-19 have increased in Australia and New Zealand in the last two weeks, while the number of new infections in Thailand linked to the new NB.1.8.1 variant has skyrocketed, which has activated alerts in Southeast Asia.
In New Zealand, official data shows that on June 1st, the highest infection rate of the year was recorded, with 21.7 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, a situation that has worsened in the last five days, according to reports this Friday by the public media RNZ.
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"A sharp increase in hospitalizations for severe respiratory infections in Auckland over the past week" has occurred, while "general practitioners are warning that they are already under pressure," the report says.
Furthermore, in the penultimate week of May, wastewater tests showed a 75% increase in covid-19 cases, revealing a much higher increase than that calculated in hospitals, according to the RNZ text.
In Australia, for its part, infections doubled in May compared to the previous month and reached 19,363, while maintaining a growth path. In the first five days of June alone, 3,977 cases were counted, most of them under five years old and over 85 years old.
This increase in the number of cases occurs as Thailand leads the global statistics, with 333,000 infections detected from May 9th to June 5th, a timeframe in which 69 people lost their lives to this disease in that country.
This surge is linked to the spread of the NB.1.8.1 variant, first detected on January 22nd and whose circulation has increased in the Western Pacific, the Americas, and Europe, as explained by the World Health Organization (WHO) in a statement.
This variant, present in at least 22 countries as of May 18, then represented 10.7% of global covid-19 cases, while its proliferation in Southeast Asia has led authorities in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Burma (Myanmar) to strengthen prevention measures.
