Overview of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in five countries facing community transmission

Abstract

Due to the current pandemic caused by COVID-19, this study aims to compare the evolution of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in five countries facing community transmission of the disease. This is a time series study that included confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the following countries: Brazil, China, Spain, United States and Italy. The period of analysis included the date of confirmation of the 100th case in the country until the 42nd day of the disease spread, or a shorter interval in the territories that had not yet reached this stage. The data were segregated into seven-day periods and then case detection coefficients per country per week were calculated, in addition to the mean and the mean difference between countries. During the study period, 9,114 confirmed cases were recorded in Brazil until the 21st day, 79,251 in China until the 42nd day, 131,646 in Spain until the 35th day, 186,979 in the United States until the 28th day and 124,632 in Italy until the 42nd day. The evolution in the number of confirmed cases shows an increase in the discrepancy between countries in the weeks after the initial milestone, as the United States has the largest number of cases. Spain has the highest case detection coefficients and China has stabilized its coefficient below 5 cases / 100,000 inhab. after the 29th day. There was also a change in the pattern of the average of confirmed cases over the period, with a statistically significant difference between the countries in the third week of analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic advances differently in the countries included in this study.