According to the Weekly epidemiological bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) , 
worldwide Covid-19 infections rose 70% last week – which is an unprecedented rate – while deaths dropped 10%. Between December 27 and January 2, there were 9.5 million confirmed cases in the world, four times smaller.
Europe was once again the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic due to the Ômicron variant, which is more transmissible, and concentrated more than half of the cases (5.3 million) and deaths (22 thousand) worldwide. According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, "the highest number of reported cases so far occurred last week."
The increase in new cases was in the order of 100% in America and 65% in Europe, on the other hand, deaths from Covid-19 dropped by 18% and 6%, respectively. If it continues at this pace on the European continent, Europe will surpass America (104 million) in the number of confirmed cases.
In Africa, where the Ômicron variant was detected for the first time, infections rose 7% and deaths grew 22%. On the African continent, the majority of the population remains unvaccinated. In addition, the WHO bulletin shows that more than 9.3 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered, immunizing 59% of the world's population with at least one dose. But in poorer countries, the rate drops to 8.8%.
Covid-19 has caused more than 5.4 million deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic and the report does not records data on the presence of different variants in new infections. With this, the director-general of WHO warned of the risk of Ômicron, which has already had the first confirmed death in Brazil . He said that although the variant turns out to be less severe, "that doesn't mean it can be classified as mild."
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Source: Agência Brasil
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The post Covid-19 cases worldwide increased by 70% last week, says WHO first appeared in Look Digital .
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