The number of new Covid-19 cases reported worldwide fell 16 percent last week to 2.7 million, the World Health Organization said.
The number of new deaths reported has also dropped 10 percent week-to-week to 81,000, the WHO said Tuesday night in its weekly epidemiological update, using figures until Sunday.
Five of the six WHO regions in the world reported a double-digit percentage decline in new cases, with only the Eastern Mediterranean showing a seven percent increase.
The number of new cases fell 20% last week in Africa and the Western Pacific, 18% in Europe, 16% in the Americas and 13% in Southeast Asia.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that the number of new cases had declined for the fifth consecutive week, dropping by almost half, from more than five million cases in the week of January 4.
“This shows that simple public health measures work, even in the presence of variants,” said Tedros.
“What matters now is how we respond to that trend. The fire is not over, but we have reduced its size. If we stop fighting it on any front, it will come back roaring.”
The coronavirus concern variant first detected in Britain was reported in 94 countries last week, the epidemiological update reported, an increase of eight.
Local transmission of the variant, unlike imported cases, has been reported in at least 47 countries.
The variant first detected in South Africa was registered in 46 countries, up to two, with local transmission in at least 12 of those nations.
The so-called Brazilian variant was detected in 21 countries, up to six, with local transmission in at least two countries.
– Covax delivery plans –
Meanwhile, the Covax facility, the global effort to acquire and distribute Covid-19 vaccines that aims to ensure that the poorest countries also have access to doses, said that their final delivery list for first deliveries would be issued next week. , after WHO gave the green light to AstraZeneca jabs.
On Monday, WHO gave the seal of approval to the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine being manufactured in factories in India and South Korea, meaning it can now be shipped via Covax, giving many countries their first Covid vaccines -19.
“Covax predicts that most of the first round of deliveries will take place in March, with some early shipments … taking place in late February,” the facility co-led by WHO said in a statement.
The provisional distribution list published on February 3 detailed the program’s 337.2 million starting doses – of which, except 1.2 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, are from AstraZeneca. Both vaccines approved by WHO require two injectable doses.
About 145 economies participating in Covax are expected to receive enough doses to immunize 3.3 percent of their collective population by mid-2021.
“Deliveries for this first round of allocation will take place on an ongoing basis and in installments,” said Covax.
rjm / rma