According to the weekly epidemiological report that WHO has just sent to press agencies on the morning of 7-7 (Vietnam time), an additional 4.6 million cases of Covid-19 were recorded worldwide in the last statistical week (from June 27 to July 3). According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the number of global Covid-19 cases has increased by nearly 30% in just two weeks.
The rate of cases during the week continued to increase in 4/6 WHO regions, of which the highest was in the Eastern Mediterranean region, with an increase of 29%.
Notably, while the global overall mortality rate decreased by 12% for the week, the mortality rate in the Eastern Mediterranean increased by 34%. This is one of the areas where WHO has always expressed concern because the vaccination rate is very low, as of April 2022, only 42% of the population has received the full basic dose (2 doses).
The number of cases in Southeast Asia (WHO Southeast Asia does not include Vietnam) increased by 20%, the mortality rate increased by 16%, this is also an area with many countries with low vaccination rates. Europe continued to increase by 15% in the number of new cases during the week and accounted for 52% of the total number of cases worldwide.
The Western Pacific region that Vietnam belongs to witnessed a reversal: last week it decreased slightly, this week increased by 4% in the number of cases, but the number of deaths decreased by 12%.
The Americas region saw an 18% decrease in morbidity and a 13% decrease in mortality; while Africa seems to have actually passed the peak of the epidemic with a 33% decrease in morbidity and a 50% decrease in mortality.
Regarding the ratio of sub-variants/sub-variants, WHO has changed the statistical method: Omicron sub-variant is separated, statistically on par with Delta and unspecified strains instead of being counted as “children” of Omicron.
According to this new statistical way, the sub-variant BA.5 Omicron has shown that it has officially become the “dominant” strain globally with the rate skyrocketing from 37% to 52% on the number of gene sequences synthesized on the GISAID database.
BA.4 rates increased slightly from 11% to 12% globally; while BA.2.12.1 decreased from 19% to 11%. BA.2 used to be the “dominant” line a few weeks ago now accounting for only 9% of the world.
Taken together, 92% of global cases are due to Omicron mutations, 0.01% are due to Delta, while the rest are being further identified, possibly Omicron, Delta or other recombinant forms.
The WHO Director-General said that the organization is also closely monitoring the new strain BA.2.75, which was reported from India a few days ago.
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