The global number of new cases reported last week (19-25 July 2021) was over 3.8 million, an 8% increase as compared to the previous week (Figure 1); an average of around 540 000 cases were reported each day over the past week as compared to 490 000 cases reported daily the week before. This trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Americas and Western Pacific Regions. The number of deaths reported this week increased sharply with over 69 000 deaths, a 21% increase when compared to the previous week; the greatest number of new deaths were reported from the Americas and South-East Asia Regions. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 194 million and the number of cumulative deaths exceeds 4 million.
If these trends continue, the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks. Last week, three WHO Regions – the Americas, Europe and Western Pacific reported an increase in case incidence. The Region of the Americas reported the largest increase in case incidence as compared to the previous week, followed by the Western Pacific Region (30% and 25%, respectively) (Table 1). The European Region also reported an increase in new cases, albeit at a much lower rate of 3%, when compared to the previous week. The number of new deaths increased in all regions apart from the European Region where it remained similar to the previous week.
The highest weekly case incidence rates per 100 000 population were reported by the Americas and European Regions, which reported 123.3 and 108.3 new cases per 100 000 population, respectively. The highest numbers of deaths per 100 000 population over the past week were observed in the Americas and South-East Asia Regions which reported 2.8 and 1.1 new deaths per 100 000 population, respectively.
Over the past week, the highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States of America (500 332 new cases; 131% increase), Brazil (324 334 new cases; 13% increase), Indonesia (289 029 new cases; 17% decrease), the United Kingdom (282 920 new cases; 5% decrease), and India (265 836 new cases; similar to the previous week).
Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 182 countries, territories or areas (hereafter countries; twonew countries in the past week), while 131 countries (twonew countries)have reported cases of the Beta variant; 81 countries (three new countries) have reported cases of the Gamma variant; and 132 countries (eight new countries) have reported cases of the Delta variant.
Sources:
World Health Organisation (WHO), 27th July 2021
