Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 13 October 2021

Overview

Globally, the numbers of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths has continued to decline since late August. Over 2.8 million new cases and over 46 000 new deaths were reported during the week of 4 to 10 October 2021, representing a 7% and 10% decrease respectively, as compared to the previous week. Apart from the European Region, which reported a 7% increase in new weekly cases, all the other regions reported a decline. The largest decrease in new weekly cases was reported from the African Region (32%), followed by the Western Pacific Region (26%). The cumulative number of confirmed cases reported globally is now over 237 million and the cumulative number of deaths is over 4.8 million.

The number of new weekly deaths reported, showed a large (>10%) decline for all regions except for the European Region, which reported an increase of 11% as compared to the previous week. The largest decline in weekly deaths was reported from the Western Pacific and the African Regions, with both showing a 34% decline as compared to the previous week.

In this edition, we provide an update on SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta along with their geographical distribution.