WHO: COVID-19 deaths drop by 17% and cases increase

GENEVA (AP) — The number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell 17% last week, but COVID-19 infections increased after the number of cases started in January fell, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

According to the WHO weekly report released on Tuesday night, more than 11 million new cases of COVID-19 (an increase of about 8%) and 43,000 new deaths were found last week.The number of COVID-19 deaths has been declining globally over the past three weeks.

The largest increase in infections occurred in the Western Pacific and Africa, with an increase of 29% and 12% respectively. In other places, cases were reduced by more than 20% in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. Europe recorded a small increase of 2%.

The WHO warned that the figures should be “carefully interpreted”. He noted that many countries are changing their diagnostic testing strategies as they leave the acute phase of the pandemic and perform much fewer tests than before, so many new cases are not found.

In recent weeks, countries such as Sweden and the United Kingdom have announced plans to abandon extensive testing and have pointed out that huge investments are no longer worth it.Nevertheless, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have increased slightly in the UK, which was driven by the more contagious sub-variant Omicron BA.2. Another factor was the suspension of almost all protocols for COVID-19, leading to more crowds and abandonment of masks.

The WHO noted that although COVID-19 is sinking in many regions, the epidemic has been increasing in the western Pacific since December.

China banned most people from leaving the northeastern province affected by the coronavirus and mobilized military reserve forces on Monday, and the omicron subvariant caused the largest outbreak in the United States since the epidemic began two years ago. Authorities also restricted propaganda in southern cities with a population of 17.5 million people, and is also a major technology and financial hub bordering Hong Kong, and recently reported the highest COVID-19 mortality rate.