‘Global deaths jump by 40%, but cases fall’
The number of people killed by the coronavirus surged by more than 40% last week, likely due to changes in how Covid-19 deaths were reported across the Americas and by newly adjusted figures from India, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released on Wednesday.
It said the number of new coronavirus cases fell everywhere, including in WHO’s Western Pacific region, where they had been rising since December.
About 10mn new infections and more than 45,000 deaths were reported worldwide over the past week, following a 23% drop in fatalities the week before. The jump in reported deaths, up from 33,000 last week, was due mainly to an accounting change; WHO noted that countries including Chile and the US altered how they define Covid-19 deaths.
China logged a record 70,000 cases in March
China logged a record number of cases in March, health authorities said on Tuesday, even as the financial hub of Shanghai expands its lockdown in an attempt to curb rising infections.
China logged more than 70,000 domestic Covid-19 cases in March, the National Health Commission said, the largest number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, led by Omicron variant.
In Shanghai, home to nearly 25 million people, authorities on Wednesday began locking down some western areas two days ahead of schedule after the city reported a record 5,656 asymptomatic and 326 symptomatic Covid-19 cases for March 29.
Covid cases in Asia top 100mn: Reuters tally
Coronavirus infections in Asia passed 100 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the region records a resurgence in cases, dominated by the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant.
WHO warns of virulent Covid variant risk
The WHO on Wednesday laid out three possible paths that the Covid-19 pandemic might follow in 2022 - with a new, more virulent variant the worst-case scenario. It said the most likely way forward was that the severity of disease caused by the virus would wane over time, due to greater public immunity.
The WHO released its updated Covid-19 Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan, with the organisation’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hoping it will be the last. It lays out three possible scenarios for how the third year of the pandemic will pan out.
“Based on what we know now, the most likely scenario is that the virus continues to evolve, but the severity of disease it causes reduces over time as immunity increases due to vaccination and infection,” Tedros said.
He said periodic spikes in cases and deaths might occur as immunity wanes, which may require occasional booster vaccinations for vulnerable people.
“In the best-case scenario, we may see less severe variants emerge, and boosters or new formulations of vaccines won’t be necessary,” he said. “In the worst-case scenario, a more virulent and highly transmissible variant emerges. Against this new threat, people’s protection against severe disease and death, either from prior vaccination or infection, will wane rapidly.”
Tedros said that scenario would require significantly altering the currently-available vaccines, and then making sure they get delivered to the people most vulnerable to severe disease.