Infections, mutated variants ravaging the world The pandemic, in terms of case numbers, is a vastly different beast now than it was one year ago. Now, there are about 845,000 new cases across the world each day. This represents an increase of about 800 per cent on the same time in 2020, when the equivalent number was 92,000. The total number of recorded cases now is about 146 million which accounts for 1.8 per cent of the global population. Compare that to one year ago and the number was 2.7m infections (around 0.03 per cent of the population). This tells us Covid-19’s presence across the globe has ballooned by 5160 per cent.
Cases per 100,000
Source: Ministry of Health
The death toll would have been much higher if the early and significant action New Zealand opted for had not been taken.
New Zealand was literally a week away from not being able to contain coronavirus when the decision was made to plunge into a nationwide lockdown, Royal NZ College of General Practitioners medical director Dr Bryan Betty said in June.
At the time, Betty said New Zealand was staring down the barrel of a potential health system meltdown similar to those seen in Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.
With the spectre seen in parts of Europe and Asia looming large, the healthcare system braced for the worst.
After enduring a near-seven week lockdown, New Zealand eventually settled into a comfortable lull.
Against the odds, as winter closed in the country was Covid-19 free for the first time since February 28.
New Zealand had more than 100 days of freedom at alert level 1. Then new community cases were confirmed, seemingly out of nowhere. Hagen Hopkins/Getty
On August 9, a Sunday just shy of six months since the first case was confirmed, New Zealand marked 100 days without community transmission of the virus – joining a handful of countries, many much smaller and more remote than New Zealand, to achieve such a feat.
When the World stopped turning
Lockdowns across the Planet
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Phil Walter/Getty Images
New York City fell quiet.
Rome’s Spanish Steps were empty.
Most of the world - including
New Zealand - went into lockdown.
The only way to stop the virus spreading was to eliminate opportunities for it to pass between people. That meant perspex screens at shopping counters, social distancing on buses and trains and, at its most extreme, orders for people to stay at home.
China was the first to move.
By the end of January, before restrictive measures were introduced around the world, the country closed all its schools and non-essential workplaces, cancelled public events, placed restrictions on gatherings, halted public transport, and restricted regional travel. Mass masking was also required.
At least part of my problem is that we’re publishing more projects to our interactives platform than ever before. By 2020s end, Stuff’s projects team had generated 38 different stories, stand-alone interactive graphics, and special features. That’s on top of a number of interactive features published within conventional stories. There were many more covering a wide variety of subjects, but it’s 2020 so one story stood out. Our coverage of Covid-19 put a premium on clear, compelling and timely presentation of the most important information. Our data journalists spent a large chunk of the year deep in spreadsheets, juggling an ever-changing data feed from the Ministry of Health alongside a range of global numbers to present the latest, most relevant case numbers in their full context.