Geneva: Globally, the number of new COVID-19 cases increased by 52% during the 28 days of November 20 to December 17, 2023, as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 850,000 new cases reported.
However, the number of new deaths decreased by 8% as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 3000 new fatalities reported, according to a new COVID-19 epidemiological update on the global and regional situation, with information on hospitalizations and ICU admissions, and updates on the variants of Interest and variants under monitoring, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO)
According to the report, as of December 17, 2023, over 772 million confirmed cases and nearly seven million deaths have been reported globally.
During the period from November 13 to December 10, 2023, over 118000 new COVID-19 hospitalisations and over 1600 new intensive care unit (ICU) admissions have been recorded with an overall increase of 23% and 51% respectively amongst the countries reporting consistently within the current and past reporting periods.
As of December 18. 2023, JN.1, a sub-lineage of BA.2.86 Omicron variant has been designated a separate variant of interest (VOI) apart from its parent lineage BA.2.86 due to its rapid increase in prevalence in recent weeks. Globally, EG.5 remains to be the most reported VOI.
– global bihari bureau
