Covid-19 deaths drop 12% worldwide in one week, says WHO

The number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 continues on a downward trend recorded since the end of March. In the week of April 11 to 17, there were more than 5 million infections and more than 18,000 deaths from the disease worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the numbers represent drops of 24% and 12% respectively.

The information was released by the WHO, on Wednesday (20), in a weekly update of the epidemiological bulletin of Covid-19.

The WHO highlights that trends should be interpreted with caution, as several countries are changing testing strategies, with a reduction in the number of tests performed, which can hamper the detection of new cases.

Nationally, the highest number of new weekly cases were reported in South Korea (over 972,000), France (827,000), Germany (769,000), Italy (421,000) and Japan (342,000).

The highest number of new weekly deaths was recorded in the United States (3,076 new deaths), Russia (1,784), South Korea (1,671), Germany (1,227) and Italy (944). Brazil, which was in fifth position the week before, was not among the five countries with the highest death rates this week.

Epidemiological scenario

The Ômicron variant remains the dominant strain circulating globally, accounting for almost all sequences recently reported to the international Gisaid database. Among the 313,715 sequences made available on the portal, from samples collected in the last 30 days,
312,033 (99.5%) were Omicron and 136 (<0.1%) were Delta.

According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), more than two-thirds of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have already received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, while some countries have not yet reached half of their populations.

“Covid-19 vaccines work and are very safe,” PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne said in a press conference this week. “They are protecting the majority of people in our region from the worst consequences of Covid-19 infection.”

Basic care helps prevent Covid-19

Source: CNN Brasil

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