Lhe Covid-19 epidemic is in full swing across the globe. The world has reached new contamination records over the past week, with more than 935,000 cases of Covid-19 detected every day on average from December 22 to 28, according to an Agence France-Presse count made from reports official.
These figures, the highest since the start of the pandemic at the end of 2019, are based on the reports communicated daily by the health authorities in each country. With 6,550,000 cases recorded between December 22 and 28, or 935,863 per day on average, the virus is currently circulating at an unprecedented speed, significantly higher than the previous record, reached between April 23 and 29, 2021 (817,000 cases dailies were then recorded).
Identified contaminations, which have increased worldwide since mid-October, have increased by 37% over the last seven days compared to the previous week. The majority of new contaminations are currently observed in Europe, where more than 3.5 million cases have been recorded in the last 7 days, or more than 510,000 on average per day.
For the time being, this explosion in the number of cases detected does not translate into an overall increase in the number of deaths, which has been declining for three weeks worldwide. About 6,450 new daily deaths have been reported on average over the past seven days, the lowest since the end of October 2020. At the height of the pandemic, 14,800 daily deaths were recorded between January 20 and 26, 2021.
WHO is concerned about the contagiousness of the Omicron variant
The risk posed by the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the world remains “very high”, for its part warned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday. “The overall risk associated with the new omicron worrying variant remains very high,” warns the WHO in its weekly epidemiological bulletin.
“Reliable evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling rate of two to three days,” adds the WHO, noting that a “rapid increase in the incidence of cases is observed in a number of countries ”.
“The rapid growth is probably linked to a combination between the loss of immunity and the intrinsic increase in the transmissibility of the Omicron variant”, the same source said. However, the WHO has highlighted the 29% decrease in the incidence of cases in South Africa, the country which was the first to report this variant to the WHO on November 24.
A reduced risk of hospitalization compared to the Delta variant
WHO has previously indicated that data from the UK, South Africa and Denmark, which currently have the highest infection rates, suggests a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to the Delta variant. .
However, more data is needed to understand the seriousness represented by Omicron in terms of clinical markers, including oxygen use, mechanical ventilation and deaths. But also concerning the way in which this severity could be impacted by a previous Covid infection or a vaccination.
According to the WHO, in the week ending Sunday, the overall number of new cases rose 11% from the previous week, while the number of deaths fell by 4%. “This corresponds to just under 5 million new cases and over 44,000 new deaths,” the WHO added. The largest number of cases have been recorded in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Italy.
