The World Health Organization (WHO) posted its weekly epidemiologic update yesterday on COVID-19, which shows decreases in new cases across all global regions. All regions, except Africa, also reported decreases in deaths from the virus.
Globally, more than 1.2 million new cases and more than 7,100 deaths were reported in the past 28 days. The WHO cautioned, however, that the update is not an accurate reflection of virus activity, because of reduced testing and spotty case reporting. During this period, the WHO said, only 56% of countries and territories (133 of 234) reported one case.
The regions with the biggest decrease in cases are the South East Asia region (78% decline), the Eastern Mediterranean region (71% decline), and the Americas (70% decline).
The countries with the largest number of new cases were Korea (363,382 new cases), Australia (135,144), and Brazil (85,987). Brazil also reported the highest number of new deaths, with 978.
XBB.1.5 levels continue to decline steadily and are at 22.3%, down from 36.7% the previous week. Other lineages are on the rise, including XBB.1.16, XBB.1.9.2, and XBB.2.3.
ECDC says Europe stable
The latest update from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows stable or declining trends. A total of 193 deaths were reported from 20 countries, and no countries reported increases in hospitalizations, a trend the ECDC said should continue through July 2 based on predictive models.
The agency is seeing mostly XBB.1.5. lineage, representing 94.8% of cases from 12 countries, followed by BA.2.75, representing 3.7% of cases from 8 countries.
US deaths show uptick
The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 data, updated last night, show continued declines in hospitalizations but an uptick in deaths, with hospitalizations down 7.4% in the past week and deaths up 9.1%.
Emergency department (ED) visits are down 3.3%, and COVID-19 accounts for just 0.5% of all ED visits.
As was seen last week, very few counties are in the high or medium COVID hospitalization range. In total, there were 6,649 new hospital admissions due to the virus for the week ending June 10.
The XBB.1.5 SARS-CoV-2 variant represents 27% of COVID-19 cases in the United States, down from 40% in the previous week. XBB.1.16 accounts for 19.9% of cases.
