In a month Covid cases collapsing and deaths on the rise in the world, while deaths are also falling in Europe. This is the trend that emerges from the update of the World Health Organization (WHO) which from this report onwards will analyze the trend of Sars-CoV-2 over a 28-day interval to go beyond “the weekly fluctuations in numbers and provide a clearer picture of where the pandemic is speeding up or slowing down.” Globally, nearly 20 million new cases were reported from January 2 to 29, down 78% from the previous 28 days, and over 114,000 deaths, up 65%. In the European Region there were more than 1.4 million cases and 15,643 deaths. Weighing on the global numbers in recent weeks was the large surge seen in the western Pacific region, particularly in China.
If the number of monthly cases reported has decreased in all WHO regions – the decline is 63% in the European Region, 81% in the Western Pacific Region, 71% in the South-East Asia Region, 35% in the Americas, 20% in Africa and 15% in the Eastern Mediterranean – the monthly death figure increased in 3 regions – Western Pacific +173%, Eastern Mediterranean +29%, Americas +13% – and decreased in 3 others areas: -25% European region, -62% Southeast Asia, -45% African region.
Nationally, the highest number of new cases in 28 days were reported by China (11,354,058; -85%), Japan (3,207,097; -20%), United States of America (1,513,538; -20%). -16%), South Korea (1,032,801; -43%) and Brazil (459,986; -54%). The highest numbers of deaths in 28 days were reported by China (62,759; +244%), USA (14,625; +31%), Japan (10,122; +46%), UK (3,137; -3%) and Brazil (2889 new deaths; -24%). From the beginning of the pandemic to January 29, 2023, the Covid counter marks more than 753 million confirmed cases and more than 6.8 million deaths reported globally. Current trends in cases are underestimates of the true number of global infections and reinfections. This is partly due to reduced testing and reporting delays in many countries. The data must therefore be interpreted with caution, warns the UN health agency.
