COVID-19 deaths continue to decline globally

Geneva: The decline in weekly deaths from the virus has continued since January this year, following the spike in China after that country lifted restrictions, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while addressing the 15th meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic today.

“For each of the past 10 weeks, the number of weekly reported deaths has been the lowest since March 2020,” Dr Ghebreyesus said and noted that this sustained trend has allowed life to return to “normal” in most countries, and has increased the capacity of health systems to cope with potential resurgences and the burden of post-COVID-19 condition.

“At the same time, some critical uncertainties about the evolution of the virus persist, which make it difficult to predict future transmission dynamics or seasonality,” he conceded.

He though warned that “this virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases”.

As per the latest WHO Weekly Epidemiological report released today, besides WHO’s  South-East Asia, (which also comprises India), and Eastern Mediterranean regions, the Western Pacific region has also now shown an increase in new COVID-19 cases during the 28-day period between April 3-30, 2023.

In WHO’s South-East Asia region, India reported the highest number of new cases (222 784 new cases; 16.1 new COVID-19 cases per 100 000; +540%), and Corona deaths (652 new deaths; <1 new death per 100 000; +515%) during this period.

However, as per the figures provided today by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there has been a marked decline in daily new cases in the country since April end.

In all 3,962 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours in the country, which was slightly higher than the previous day’s figure of 3,720 new cases. On May 2, 2023, this figure stood at 3,325. However, on May 1, the new COVID-19 cases figure stood at 4,282 and a day before that there were 5,874 new COVID-19 cases in the country. The figures had reached 7,171 on April 29,  7,533 on April 28, and 9,355 on April 27, 2023.

Meanwhile, the latest WHO report revealed that at the country level, the highest numbers of new 28-day cases were reported from the United States of America (392 480 new cases; -37%), the Republic of Korea (330 509 new cases; +22%), Japan (251 158 new cases; +24%), India (222 784 new cases; +540%), and France (197 190 new cases; +2%).

The highest numbers of new 28-day deaths were again reported from the United States of America (5263 new deaths; a 29% decline), followed by Brazil (1255 new deaths; +30%), Russia (993 new deaths; -2%), France (871 new deaths; +39%), and the Islamic Republic of Iran (762 new deaths; +82%).

– global bihari bureau