#16,343
While COVID rates remain flat in the Americas - and are even down in some parts of the world - the pandemic wave that is crushing parts of Europe is more than enough to raise the global rate of infection for the 5th week in a row (see chart above).
Even in the Americas or the Western Pacific - where cases were flat - the number of COVID deaths jumped markedly over the past week (Americas up 19%, WPRO up 29%). Deaths are a trailing indicator, and often follow surges in infection by several weeks.
Today Germany's RKI reported a new record number of cases over the past 24 hours (+66,884), the Netherlands imposed new social distancing restrictions, France reported more than 30K cases for the first time in months, and Russia has now reported more than 1200 deaths for the past 10 days in a row.
While it is expected that all of these numbers are undercounts, they are still useful in spotting trends. And as we go into winter, COVID is definitely on the rise once more.
The following summary comes from the WHO COVID Epi Report #67 (Nov 23rd).
Overview
Globally, the numbers of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths have increased for more than a month. During the week of 15-21 November 2021, nearly 3.6 million confirmed new cases and over 51 000 deaths were reported, reflecting a 6% increase for cases and deaths as compared to the previous week.
The European Region reported an 11% increase in new weekly cases, while the other regions reported a decrease or incidence similar to the previous week. The largest proportionate decrease was reported from the South-East Asia Region (11%), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean Region (9%). While the Western Pacific Region and the Region of the Americas reported relatively stable case incidence, they both reported large increases in new weekly deaths, 29% and 19% respectively.
In contrast, the African and the South-East Asia regions reported a 30% and 19% decrease in new weekly deaths. The cumulative number of confirmed cases reported globally is now over 256 million and the cumulative number of deaths is more than 5.1 million.
In this edition, two special focus updates are provided on:
Points of entry, international travel and transport in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) and Variants of Interest (VOIs)
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
Given the pattern of waves of COVID sweeping around the globe, regions that are currently seeing lowered rates of infection can't assume they won't be impacted again.
All reasons why getting the vaccine, and the appropriate booster shots, make sense - even if right now you are lucky enough to be living in a region where COVID infection rates have dropped.
