No statistics are particularly accurate, but case and death rates in India (South Asia) and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular are probably much higher than reported.

[27][28] COVID-19 cases and deaths by region, in absolute figures and rates per million inhabitants as of 25 December 2022[29] The table was updated automatically on 11 February 2025.

As a result of COVID-19 many regions have imposed lockdowns, curfews, and quarantines alongside new legislation and evacuations, or other restrictions for citizens of or recent travelers to the most affected areas.

[32] Other regions have imposed global restrictions that apply to all foreign countries and territories, or prevent their own citizens from travelling overseas.

[40] The government of Egypt denied January 2021 allegations that the shortage of oxygen had killed several COVID-19 patients at one of its hospitals.

The video of one of Egypt's hospitals treating critical patients using manual ventilation methods went viral on Facebook.

In addition, the relatives of the dead patients and the El Husseineya Central Hospital's medical staff also confirmed in an interview given to The New York Times that the cause of death had been the shortage of oxygen.

The Asian countries with the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases are India, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, and Iran.

[50] Despite being the first area of the world hit by the outbreak, the early wide-scale response of some Asian states, particularly Bhutan,[51] Singapore,[52] Taiwan,[53] and Vietnam[54] has allowed them to fare comparatively well.

China was criticised for initially minimising the severity of the outbreak, but its wide-scale response has largely contained the disease since March 2020.

[55][56][57][58] The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent.

[87][88] Early in 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease spread to a number of cruise ships, with the nature of such ships – including crowded semi-enclosed areas, increased exposure to new environments, and limited medical resources – contributing to the heightened risk and rapid spread of the disease.

Private citizens have reported hospitals being overwhelmed with patients showing COVID-19-like symptoms, including a very large outbreak in a women's prison that apparently began September 2020.