Geneva: After a consistent decrease since the end of January 2022, the number of new weekly cases increased by 8% during the week of March 7 through 13, 2022, according to Global overview Data released by World Health Organization (WHO) here today.
The number of new deaths continued a decreasing trend (-17% as compared to the previous week).
Across the six WHO regions, over 11 million new cases and over 43 000 new deaths were reported. As of 13 March 2022, over 455 million confirmed cases and over 6 million deaths have been reported globally.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from South Korea (2 100 171 new cases; +44%), Viet Nam (1 670 627 new cases; +65%), Germany (1 350 362 new cases; +22%), Netherlands (475 290 new cases; +42%), and France (419 632 new cases; +20%).
The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from the United States of America (9078 new deaths; -13%), the Russian Federation (4530 new cases; -15%), Brazil (3301 new cases; -15%), Indonesia (1994 new cases; -5%) and China (1955 new deaths; +63%).,/p>
At the regional level, the Western Pacific Region, the African Region and the European Region reported increases in new weekly cases of 29%, 12% and 2%, respectively, as compared to the previous week; while decreases were reported by the Eastern Mediterranean Region (-24%), the South-East Asia Region (-21%) and the Region of the Americas (-20%).
“These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries are progressively changing their testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently numbers of cases detected,” WHO stated.
The current global epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by the global dominance of the Omicron variant. Delta remains the only other VOC with reported circulation at non-negligible levels. Among the 430 487 sequences uploaded to GISAID – that provides open access to genomic data of influenza viruses and the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic – with specimens collected in the last 30 days, 429 994 (99.9%) were Omicron and 400 (0.1%) were Delta.
During the last six months, a significant decline in the circulation of the Variants Of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta and Gamma has been observed in all six WHO regions. Over the past 90 days, few to no sequences of these variants have been reported.
On March 9, 2022, Lambda, first detected in Peru in December 2020, and Mu, first detected in Colombia in January 2021, were designated as ‘previously circulating Variants Of Interest (VOIs)’. Their prevalence has declined significantly over the last year, with no circulation reported during the past 90 days in any of the six WHO regions.
– global bihari bureau
