WHO "Last Week 21 Million New Cases... Increase Rate Down"

Omicron Variant Detected in 89.1% of Samples from International Influenza Information Sharing Organization

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young]Although more than 21 million new COVID-19 cases were reported last week, the rate of increase appears to be slowing down.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) weekly epidemiological report on the 26th (local time), a total of 21,362,288 COVID-19 cases were recorded worldwide from the 17th to the 23rd. This represents a 5% increase compared to the previous week. However, the WHO stated that "a decrease in the global incidence rate has been observed."

Four weeks ago (December 27, 2021 ? January 2, 2022), the weekly increase rate of new cases was 71%, but this figure has steadily declined to 55% three weeks ago (January 3?9) and 20% two weeks ago (January 10?16).

The number of new cases has also decreased in more regions. Two weeks ago, only the African region saw a reduction in new cases compared to the previous week, but last week, decreases were observed in both Africa (-31%) and the Americas (-10%).

However, increases were seen in the Eastern Mediterranean (39%), Southeast Asia (36%), and Europe (13%). The Western Pacific region (1%) showed little change compared to the previous week.

The cumulative number of confirmed cases stood at 346,741,628 as of the 23rd.

New deaths last week totaled 49,890, a 1% increase from the previous week. Regionally, Southeast Asia (44%) had the highest increase in new deaths, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean (15%) and the Americas (7%). Africa (-14%), the Western Pacific (-12%), and Europe (-5%) saw decreases. The cumulative death toll was 5,584,374 as of the 23rd.

The WHO reported that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has overwhelmingly dominated recent detections. According to the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID), analysis of nucleotide sequences from samples uploaded in the past 30 days showed that the Omicron variant accounted for 89.1%. The previously dominant Delta variant accounted for 10.7%.