Abstract
Despite the decrease in COVID-19 testing and reporting new infections, the numbers of new cases and deaths per capita registered in some European countries and USA in September 2024 were higher than endemic limits and exceeded seasonal flu mortality. These facts make the development of new vaccines or the further use of existing ones very urgent. The averaged daily numbers of cases DCC and death DDC per million, case fatality risks CFR=DDC/DCC in 2020-2024 calculated for 34 countries and regions were used to investigate the trends versus vaccination levels. These trends together with the published before results of statistical analysis show that existing vaccines cannot reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths, i.e. vaccinations reduced severity but not transmission. Therefore, it is still necessary to avoid close contacts and crowded places, trace and isolate infected people, wear masks in transport and medical facilities, wash hands more often, etc. Nevertheless, vaccinations and boosters can be recommended in order to reduce the severity of SARS-CoV-2 disease and probability of dying for infected individuals (CFR). Recent epidemic waves can probably be controlled with the use of the immediate and sufficient increase of the number of tests.
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic dynamics, Vaccinations, Daily numbers of cases and deaths per capita, Case fatality risk, Statistical methods