The number of Covid-19 cases continues to increase worldwide, to nearly 816,990 daily new cases on 14 April, surpassing the peak during the second wave of the virus last January. Asia reported the biggest increase in new cases (356,838). In Europe and the Americas, the number of new cases is also rising, to 212,385 and 233,648 respectively (chart 1).
Faced with the resurgence of the pandemic, retail and leisure footfall* declined in the developed economies, especially in Europe, during the week of 4-11 April compared to the previous week. During this week, footfall in France declined by -14.3 points. France is currently the European country where the virus is the most virulent. In Germany, Belgium and Italy, footfall declined by -9.3 points, -7.3 points and -4.4 points, respectively. In the United States, with the acceleration in the vaccination campaign, footfall increased slightly (+2.9 points) (chart 3). Moreover, the OECD Weekly Tracker of annual GDP growth continued to decline in Europe. Italy was the only European country to report a rebound in this indicator. In Japan, the indicator maintained its upward momentum. The Tracker is based on Google Trends resulting from queries on consumption, the labour market, housing, industrial activity as well as uncertainty. Note, however, that these calculations may partly reflect a base effect (chart 3).
Lastly, vaccination campaigns continue to be rolled out worldwide, notably in the European Union, where they have accelerated rapidly. Even so, it remain far below the pace observed in the United States, which reported the strongest increase for the month (+15.8 points). In the UK, the vaccination campaign continues to advance, and nearly 50% of the population has received at least one dose. However, the campaign has slowed over the past week. This slowdown is mainly due to the delay in delivery of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India (chart 2).
