Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 20 July 2021

Overview

The global number of new cases reported last week (12-18 July 2021) was over 3.4 million, a 12% increase as compared to the previous week. Globally, COVID-19 case weekly incidence increased with an average of around 490 000 cases reported each day over the past week as compared to 400 000 cases daily in the previous week. Following a steady decline for over two months, the number of weekly deaths reported was similar to the previous week, with almost 57 000 deaths reported. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 190 million and the number of deaths exceeds 4 million.

In this edition, two special focus updates are provided:

• The release of a WHO COVID-19 detailed surveillance data dashboard, including a downloadable database feature.
• A detailed update on the phenotypic characteristics (transmissibility, disease severity, risk of reinfection, and impacts on diagnostics and vaccine performance) of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. It also includes updates on the geographic distribution of VOCs.