The number of new cases of covid-19 recorded in the world decreased by 16% last week, to 2.7 million, announced the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday night (16)
The number of new deaths reported has also decreased 10% from the previous week, according to the WHO weekly epidemiological update, based on data received until Sunday.
Five of the six regions of the world studied by WHO reported a double-digit reduction in the number of new cases; only the eastern Mediterranean increased by 7%.
The number of new cases fell 20% last week in Africa and the Western Pacific, 18% in Europe, 16% in South America and 13% in Southeast Asia.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported on Monday that the number of new infections had declined for the fifth consecutive week, standing at around half compared to more than five million cases recorded in the week of 4 January .
“This shows that simple public health measures work, even in the presence of variants,” he said.
“What matters now is how we react to this trend. The fire didn’t go out, but we reduced the size. If we stop fighting it on either front, it will come back strong. ”
The coronavirus variant first caught in the UK was detected in 94 countries last week, according to the epidemiological update, that is, eight more countries in a week.
In at least 47 countries, local contagion of this variant has already been recorded.
The South African variant was detected in 46 countries, twice as much, with local transmission in at least 12 of those countries.
The Brazilian variant was also detected in 21 countries, six more per week, with local transmission in at least two countries.
