Global trend in Covid-19 showed signs of slowing last week
Geneva, Jan 19 (EFE).- The upward curve in global Covid-19 cases, driven by the contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus, showed signs of slowing in the week ending January 16, according to data from the World Health Organization on Wednesday.
Health authorities registered 18.7 million cases worldwide between January 10-16, which reflected a 20% increase from the previous week.
However, the first and second weeks of the year saw a 70% and 55% rise in cases respectively.
The WHO’s epidemiological report logged 45,000 Covid-related deaths in the previous week, a 4% rise from the seven days prior, but the global mortality rate has remained relatively stable since October.
Africa was the only region to record a drop in cases last week with 190,000, a decrease of 27%. Europe reported a 10% rise with 8.2 million cases, the Americas a 17% jump with 7.1 million and East Asia a 38% uptick with 1 million new infections.
The biggest rise in cases was detected in South and Southeast Asia, where new infections rose by 1.7 million, a 145% surge compared to the previous seven days. It is one of the last regions to be affected by the arrival of the Omicron variant, which in the second week of the year drove cases up by 418%.
Similarly, the Middle East saw cases shoot up by 68% week-on-week with 345,000 documented infections.
Nonetheless, the infection curve in almost all reasons showed signs of slowing, although none have yet hit a peak in cases.
In terms of countries, the United States led the table with 4.6 million cases followed by France with 2 million, India with 1.5 million, Italy with 1.2 and the United Kingdom with 813,000, which was a decrease of 33% from the previous week.
Around 60% of the world’s population has received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, although the distribution of the jab remains unequal. EFE
abc/jt
