Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 30 November 2021

Overview

Globally, weekly COVID-19 case incidence plateaued this week, with nearly 3.8 million confirmed new cases reported during the week of 22-28 November 2021, similar to the previous week’s figures. However, new weekly cases increased in three of the six WHO regions. While global weekly deaths decreased by 10% in the past seven days as compared to the previous week, with over 47 500 new deaths reported, an increase in weekly deaths was reported in two of the six regions. As of 28 November, over 260 million confirmed cases and nearly 5.2 million deaths have been reported globally.

In this edition, we provide:

-Details on the newly designated SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern (VOC) Omicron (B.1.1.529)

-Updates on the geographic distribution of VOCs

-A summary of phenotypic characteristics (transmissibility, disease severity, risk of reinfection, and impacts on diagnostics and vaccine performance) of VOCs based on available studies.