Coronavirus: cases jump 50 per cent but deaths remain stable, says WHO report
- Globally, there were 15 million new Covid-19 cases last week and more than 43,000 deaths, except for Africa, which saw an 11 per cent drop in infections
- Southeast Asia reported the biggest rise in Covid-19 infections, up by more than 400 per cent, with the largest numbers in India, Timor-Leste, Thailand and Bangladesh
The number of new coronavirus infections in the last week jumped by about 55 per cent, although the number of deaths remained stable, the World Health Organization said in its latest pandemic report.
In the weekly report issued Tuesday night, the UN health agency said there were about 15 million new Covid-19 cases last week and more than 43,000 deaths. Every world region reported a rise in Covid-19 cases except for Africa, where officials saw an 11 per cent drop.
Last week, WHO noted a pandemic record high of 9.5 million new infections in a single week, calling it a “tsunami” of disease.
The WHO said the extremely contagious Omicron variant continues to define the pandemic globally and is now crowding out the previously dominant delta variant. It said Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa in late November, accounts for nearly 59 per cent of all sequences shared with the largest publicly available global database of viruses.
The WHO said Omicron had now proven to have a shorter doubling time, with increasing evidence it was able to “evade immunity.” It also noted there were numerous studies that it is less severe compared to previous variants.