The global number of new cases has been increasing for more than a month, with over 4 million cases reported in the past week (26 July to 1 August 2021) (Figure 1). This increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific Regions which reported 37% and 33% increases respectively as compared to the previous week, while the South-East Asia Region reported a 9% increase (Table 1); the other three Regions reported similar weekly case incidence or a slight decrease as compared to the previous week.
Overall, the number of deaths reported this week decreased by 8% as compared to the previous week, with over 64 000 deaths reported. However, the Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean Regions showed a sharp increase in new deaths as compared to the previous week, reporting 48% and 31% increases, respectively. The other four Regions reported a similar number of weekly deaths as compared to the previous week, with the exception of the Region of the Americas which reported a 29% decrease. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 197 million and the number of cumulative deaths is 4.2 million. If these trends continue, the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million by next week.
The Regions with the highest weekly case and deaths incidence rates per 100 000 population remain the same as last week: the Regions of the Americas (123.3 new cases per 100 000 population) and Europe (118.4 new cases per 100 000 population) reported the highest weekly case incidence while the Americas and South-East Asia Regions reported the highest weekly incidence in deaths , 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 (543 420 new cases; 9% increase), India (283 923 new cases; 7% increase), Indonesia (273 891 new cases; 5% decrease), Brazil (247 830 new cases; 24% decrease), and the Islamic Republic of Iran (206 722 new cases; 27% increase).
Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 182 countries, territories or areas (hereafter countries), while 132 countries (one new country) have reported cases of the Beta variant; 81 countries (one new country) have reported cases of the Gamma variant; and 135 countries (three new countries) have reported cases of the Delta variant.
Sources:
World Health Organisation (WHO), 01st August 2021
