The global number of new cases has been increasing for the last two months, with over 4.4million cases reported in the past week (9 – 15 August 2021) (Figure 1). This increasing trend is largely attributed to increases in the Western Pacific Region and the Region of the Americas which reported 14% and 8% increases respectively as compared to the previous week; the other four regions reported similar or a decrease in new weekly cases as compared to the previous week.

The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 206 million and the cumulative number of deaths is almost 4.4 million. All regions except the Western Pacific and the Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported similar or a decrease in the number of deaths this week as compared to the previous week. While the African Region reported the largest decline in cases and deaths, with 23% and 18% decreases in incidence respectively, data from the weekend is incomplete which may overestimate differences as compared to the previous week.

The regions with the highest weekly incidence rates of cases and deaths per 100 000 population remain the same as last week: the Region of the Americas and the European Region reported the highest weekly case (147.4 and 121.6 new cases per 100 000 population, respectively) and death incidence (2.0 and 1.1 new deaths per 100 000 population, respectively). At the country level, the highest numbers of new cases in the past week were reported by the United States of America (883 996 new cases; 9% increase), the Islamic Republic of Iran (26 9975 new cases, 9% increase), and India (258 121 new cases; 7% decrease).

However, the highest numbers of new deaths in the past week were reported by Indonesia (10 492996 new cases; 8% decrease), Brazil (6100 new cases, 3% decrease) and the Russian Federation (5618 new cases; a 2% increase). Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 190 countries, territories or areas (hereafter countries), while 138 countries (one new country) have reported cases of the Beta variant; 82 countries (one new country) have reported cases of the Gamma variant; and 148 countries (three new countries) have reported cases of the Delta variant.

Sources:

World Health Organisation (WHO), 17^th August 2021