The number of weekly COVID-19 cases globally decreased 9% during the week of July 25-31 compared to the previous week, with more than 6.5 million new cases reported, according to the World Health Organization. (WHO).
The number of new weekly deaths was flat this week compared to the previous week, with more than 14,000 reported fatalities. As of July 31, 2022, more than 574 million cases have already been reported confirmed and more than 6.3 million deaths worldwide.
Regionally, the number of new weekly cases reported increased in the Western Pacific (+20%) and Africa (+5%); at the same time, it decreased or remained stable in Europe (-35%), Eastern Mediterranean (-12%), Southeast Asia (-2%) and America (-2%).
Covid-19 cases decreased in the world
Deaths increased in the Western Pacific (+44%), Eastern Mediterranean (+26%), Southeast Asia (+20%) and Africa (+12%), while it decreased in Europe (-26%). The number of new weekly deaths in America was similar to the previous week.
At the country level, the highest numbers of new weekly cases were reported by Japan (1,379,099 new cases; +42%), United States (923,366; 2%), South Korea (564,437; +25%), Germany (459,724; -26%) and Italy (394,583 new cases; -26%).
The highest numbers of new weekly deaths were recorded in the United States (2,626 new deaths; -10%), Brazil (1,827; +31%), Italy (1,205; +27%), Japan (655; +141%) and Australia (637; +24%).
Variants and their sequences
On the other hand, in terms of variants, from July 1 to August 1, 2022, the WHO has analyzed 204,668 sequences. Of these, 203,440 are from omicron and their descendant lineages, which represents 99% of the sequences reported worldwide in the last 30 days.
A comparison of the sequences at week 29 (July 17-23, 2022) and week 28 (July 10-16, 2022) shows that the omicron subvariants BA.5 and BA.4 remained dominant at worldwide, with a weekly prevalence that increased from 63.8 to 69.6%, and from 10.9 to 11.8%, respectively.
On the contrary, in the same period of time, the sequences BA.2.12.1 and BA.2 showed a decrease from 4.4 to 1.9% and from 2 to 1.5%, respectively.
