Weekly Epidemiological Update
India sees 83% jump in COVID-related deaths as compared to previous week
Geneva: During the week 25 to 31 October 2021, a slight upward trend in new weekly cases was observed, with over 3 million new cases reported, the World Health Organization stated here today.
Apart from the European Region, which reported a 6% increase in new weekly cases as compared to the previous week, other regions reported declines or stable trends.
New weekly deaths increased by 8% as compared with the previous week, with over 50 000 new fatalities. The observed rise in new weekly deaths has been mainly driven by WHO’s South-East Asia Region, which reported the largest increase (50%), followed by the European Region (12%) and the Western Pacific Region (10%). Cumulatively, over 246 million confirmed cases and nearly 5 million deaths have been reported.
The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from the United States of America (9550 new deaths; 2.9 new deaths per 100 000; a 6% decrease), the Russian Federation (7938 new deaths; 5.4 new deaths per 100 000; a 9% increase), India (3917 new deaths; 0.3 new deaths per 100 000; an 83% increase), Ukraine (3857 new deaths; 8.8 new deaths per 100 000; a 19% increase), and Romania (3072 new deaths; 15.9 new deaths per 100 000; a 6% increase).
The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States of America (528 455 new cases; 7% increase), the United Kingdom (285 028 new cases; 14% decrease), the Russian Federation (272 147 new cases; 9% increase), Turkey (182 027 new cases; 8% decrease), and Ukraine (152 897 new cases; 14% increase).
The WHO stated that the current global genetic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by a predominance of the Delta variant, with declining prevalence of other variants among sequences submitted to publicly available datasets or detections reported to WHO.
Summary of phenotypic impacts* of Variants of Concern
Delta has outcompeted other variants, including other VOCs, in most countries. Of 842 510 sequences uploaded to GISAID with specimens collected in the last 60 days, 838 398 (99.5%) were Delta, 1545 (0.2%) Gamma, 584 (0.1%) Alpha, 43 (<0.1%) Beta, and 0.2% comprised other circulating variants (including VOIs Mu and Lambda).
– global bihari bureau
