The trend in new deaths caused by Covid-19 worldwide has taken an upward turn after a week of falls fuelled optimism that the worst could be over.
Our chart shows the number of deaths recorded each day as a rolling three-day average – smoothing out “noise” caused by particularly low or high reporting on any given day.
While Italy – which is more than a month into lockdown – and Spain appear to be well past their peaks, the picture remains more erratic elsewhere.
The USA’s three-day average rose after a record number of deaths were announced there yesterday. The figures are complicated by the fact working patterns over Easter weekend may have caused delays in reporting deaths – leading to the figures for the first part of this week potentially under-estimating the true death toll.