Global COVID-19 cases rise for fifth week in a row

Between July 4 and 10, the world registered at least 5.7 million cases of covid-19, a weekly rise of 6% and the fifth in a row, according to the epidemiological report published today by the World Health Organization. (WHO), number 100 since the start of the pandemic.

Europe, with 2.8 million cases last week (4% more than in the previous seven days), is currently the most affected region, followed by the Americas (1.5 million, 1% less) and East Asia ( 1 million, which was an increase of 28%).

On the other hand, last week 9,872 deaths from covid-19 were confirmed globally, a decrease of 2% compared to the previous weekly period.

The Americas was the region with the most deaths (4,789, 4% less than in the previous week), followed by Europe (2,946, a figure similar to that of the previous seven days) and East Asia (1,377, a decrease of 10%) .

The WHO insists that the statistics, especially those of infections, should be interpreted with caution given that many countries have reduced the tests carried out as mild or moderate cases proliferate.

The country that reported the most cases last week was France (771,000), followed by the US (722,000), Italy (661,000), Germany (561,000) and Brazil (396,000).

The countries with the most deaths in the period studied were the USA (1,987), Brazil (1,639), China (692), Spain (619) and Italy (574).

Within the omicron variant, dominant throughout this year, the BA.5 sublineage has become the most detected in laboratories, and already represents half of the sequenced cases.

Since the start of the pandemic, at least 555 million cases of covid have been confirmed worldwide, with 6.3 million deaths.