From December 13 to 19, 4.1 million cases were confirmed in the world, so that the accumulated in two years of the pandemic rises to 274 million.
Global cases of COVID-19 fell 2% last week, despite the sharp increase in infections that have recently been registered in many Western European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland or Spain, according to the weekly epidemiological report of the World Health Organization (WHO).
From December 13 to 19, 4.1 million cases were confirmed worldwide, bringing the accumulated two-year pandemic to 274 million, according to data from the Geneva-based agency.
Africa, the continent where the new omicron variant was first detected, was for another week the region with the highest increase in cases (53%, 256,000 more), although in absolute figures Europe was once again the area with the most cases (2 , 6 million, 3% less than in the previous week).
In America, which these days will exceed the barrier of 100 million accumulated cases, 904,000 infections were registered last week, a decrease of 10%, while in East Asia the positives rose 12%, and in the Middle East and South Asia they were down 12%.
By country, the United States continues to be the one with the most weekly cases (725,000 last week, 12% less than the previous week), followed by the United Kingdom (507,000, 45% more), France (358,000, 7% more ) and Germany (283,000, 19% less).
On the other hand, last week 44,000 deaths were registered in the world by COVID-19, a decrease of 9% compared to the previous seven days.
Africa registered the only regional increase in deaths, of 15%, although in absolute figures it was the one with the fewest deaths, 560, while Europe was another week the area with the most deaths (26,800), although these fell by one on the continent. 7% compared to the previous week.
In the American continent, deaths fell by 15% (10,200), and in the rest of the regions there were also decreases that were 6% in East and South Asia and 12% in the Middle East (about 7,000 adding the three areas).
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 5.3 million people have died of COVID-19, according to WHO statistics.
The curve of the pandemic shows that throughout this year four waves of cases have occurred globally (the three that had their peaks in January, April and July, plus the current one), but that deaths have been gradually decreasing from their record highs in January, when there were about 100,000 a week.
8,780 million vaccines have been administered in the world, a figure that exceeds the number of people on the planet, with which 57% of the global population has received at least one dose, although in low-income countries that percentage falls 8.1%. (I)
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