The Health Organization has urged for caution even as COVID-19 cases declined globally over the past week.
The WHO said in their weekly COVID-19 pandemic briefing that COVID cases and deaths had reduced worldwide over the past week. The organization reported about 4.1 million new cases, a 14 % drop from the previous week and 84,000 deaths, a 2 % drop from the previous week.
COVID cases, deaths still high
In both cases and deaths, the most significant decline came from the European region, incidentally the region with a high number of countries that have vaccinated more. The Southeast Asia region followed it.
However, the number of cases in Africa, the Americas, the Mediterranean, and the Western Pacific did not change much.
“Despite the declining global trend over the past four weeks, COVID-19 cases and deaths incidences remain high, and we have observed a substantial increase in many countries throughout the world,” The WHO said.
Variant from India spreading fast
The WHO also reported that the variant B.1.617, first reported in India, has now crossed to 53 countries, though unofficial reports state that seven more countries have the variant.
• COVID-19 strain first detected in India found in 53 territories, says WHO https://t.co/zSbEwENmvM
• Hong Kong could soon throw away millions of unused Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses, say officials https://t.co/JjLGHIa3Rb
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The B.1.617 has shown to be more transmissible, with studies still ongoing to see if it is more deadly. The variant is fourth in spreading among the four mutations WHO has classified as variants of concern.
The B.1.1.7, first found in the UK, is now in 149 territories, B.1.351, from South Africa, is in 102 territories, and the P.1, from Brazil, is in 59 territories. All these four variants have shown an ease of transmissibility. However, no study has yet found them deadlier than the original strain, nor have they been resistant to available vaccines.
“Virus evolution is normal, and the more SARS-CoV-2 circulates, the more opportunities it has to evolve,” WHO said in their report, “Reducing transmissions through proven disease control methods are crucial aspects of the worldwide strategy to reduce the occurrence of mutations.”
