Geneva: With nearly 4 million new cases reported globally in the past week (6-12 September), this represents the first substantial decline in weekly cases in more than two months, the World Health Organization(WHO) said today.
During this period, India reported 248 248 new cases (18.0 new cases per 100 000; a 15% decrease); and (2122 new deaths (<1 new deaths per 100 000; a 21% decrease).
All WHO regions reported declines in new cases as compared to the previous week. The number of deaths reported globally in the past week also decreased as compared to the previous week, with just over 62 000 new deaths.
The African Region though, reported an increase in the number of weekly deaths (7%), while the South-East Asia Region reported the largest decrease (20%). The American and Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported slightly smaller decreases, 9% and 6% respectively, while the numbers of deaths reported in the European and the Western Pacific Regions were similar to last week.
The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 224 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just over 4.6 million.
The regions reporting the highest weekly incidence rates per 100 000 population of cases and of deaths remain the same as in the previous week: the Region of the Americas (143 new cases per 100 000 population; 2.3 deaths per 100 000 population) and European Region (119.4 new cases per 100 000 population; 1.5 deaths per 100 000 population).
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States of America (1 034 836 new cases; 20% decrease), the United Kingdom (256 051 new cases; 5% increase), India (248 248 new cases; 15% decrease), the Islamic Republic of Iran (172 030 new cases; 17% decrease), and Turkey (158 236 new cases; 6% increase).
Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 193 countries with no new country added since last week, while 142 countries (one new country since last week) have reported cases of the Beta variant; and 96 countries (four new countries since last week) have reported cases of the Gamma variant. For the Delta variant, since it was first reported in October 2020, it has been reported in 180 (six new countries since last week) countries across all six WHO regions as of 14 September.
– global bihari bureau
