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Two hundred million is a huge number.

But while the world records the 200 millionth confirmed case of coronavirus infection, this frightening figure – more than the populations of Germany, France and Spain combined – fails to capture how far the virus has penetrated humanity.

Although it is an imperfect measure of a virus that always causes no symptoms in many infectedCase numbers provided a useful tool for much of the pandemic as many infections went unreported – a warning of imminent danger, such as a flashing red light in the cockpit of a jet plane.

The increase in the number of cases was followed by a group of people who flocked to the emergency rooms very often. And after a few weeks, death numbers typically increased. According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, it took more than a year for the pandemic to reach its 100 millionth case and a little over six months to double that, with the world surpassing the 200 million figure on Wednesday. .

The number of people killed by the virus is also staggering.

Official figures are more 614,000 deaths in the United States, 558,000 in Brazil and 425.00 in India. Mexican More than 240,000 deaths and Peru recorded about 200,000 deaths. Britain, Colombia, France, Italy, and Russia each recorded more than 100,000 deaths. NS global toll Given the discrepancies in the way nations record Covid deaths, it was nearly 4.25 million as of Wednesday – a serious underestimate, experts say.

As the coronavirus continues to rapidly find new hosts across the planet, the emergence of the Delta variant, thought to be about twice as contagious as the original version first detected in Wuhan, China, is adding fuel to a fire that has never been seen before. He stopped angrily.

In just one week, from July 19-25, nearly four million cases have been recorded By the World Health Organization – an 8 percent jump from the previous week.

69,000 Covid deaths were recorded that week, with many of the new infections occurring in unvaccinated countries or among the unvaccinated.

Despite quarantines, travel restrictions, mask requirements, workplace closures, social distancing and radical changes in individual behavior, the virus continues to find a way to spread.

Some countries such as Australia, keeping success low case numbers thanks to geographic isolation and strict quarantine measures. But that may not be possible given the rise of the Delta variant. And governments are increasingly facing angry protests while trying to impose lockdowns on tired populations and struggling businesses.

But in the last six months, the calculation has become more complex to quantify the danger of the moment. An increase in the number of cases alone in many places may not be a harbinger of a flood of very sick people.

For countries where vaccines are scarce, the math of the pandemic remains unchanged. Indonesian authorities reported about 57,000 new cases One day in mid-July, seven times the previous month, the highest figure since the start of the pandemic. Twelve days later, more than 2,000 people died in a single day, and the country is now approaching 100,000 dead from Covid-19.

But in countries that are fortunate and wealthy enough to have ample vaccine resources, public health officials are watching anxiously to see how mass vaccination campaigns have completely broken the link between the number of cases and the pressure on their health systems.

In Britain, where almost all legal barriers prevent social interactions ended on July 19About 75 percent of people over the age of 18 are fully vaccinated and there are promising signs that the virus is now running out of fuel. After the rapid increase in June and early July, the number of new infections has been falling for two weeks.

In the United States, more than one 90 million people fit for shots without themExperts warn that an increase in cases this winter is inevitable.

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. “I don’t think we will see isolation,” said Anthony S. Fauci. said on sunday. “I think we have enough percentages of people in the country – not enough to crush the epidemic – but I believe enough to not let us get into the situation we were in last winter. But things will only get worse.”

The spread of the virus among the vaccinated is being heavily tracked around the world, and not much is known. are there differences breakthrough infections Depending on which vaccine was given? How long does it take for protection to disappear? And perhaps most importantly, how will the rise in breakthrough infections affect hospitalization rates?

Public health officials are confident that there is little evidence that the virus has found a way to evade vaccines’ main goal: to prevent serious illness and death.

But the virus is now an inevitable part of our world of 7.8 billion people.

“We have to understand that this virus is now endemic,” said Robert West, professor emeritus of health psychology at University College London, who is a subcommittee member of SAGE. A scientific body that advises the UK government on policy. “And we need to think about our long-term strategies to deal with this as a global phenomenon.”

“It is inevitable that we will be looking at thousands, if not tens of thousands, of deaths per year from this virus in the foreseeable future,” West said. other reasons.”