New Covid wave sweeping around the world – WHO

According to the UN health organisation, cases are up 38% but deaths are down 50% over the past month.

The World Health Organisation reported on Friday that from July 31 to August 27, more than 1.4 million new cases of Covid-19 and more than 1,800 deaths linked to the illness were reported globally.

The WHO reported in its weekly bulletin that the results show a 38% increase in cases and a 50% drop in mortality from the prior 28-day period.

According to the WHO, South Korea had the most deaths (596) and new cases (1,296,710). Following Italy with approximately 27,000 new cases was the UK with 26,000 new cases.

The Western Pacific (+52%), the European Region (+39%), and the Eastern Mediterranean (+113%) witnessed the biggest increases in new cases, whereas Africa (-76%) and South-East Asia (-48%) saw decreases.

The novel coronavirus’s ‘Eris’ variety, which has become the most prevalent after being discovered in 26% of sequences during the second week of August, is being blamed by the WHO for the rise in cases. In 109 nations, the ‘Arturo’ variety was discovered in 22.7% of sequences, while ‘Kraken’ was reported by 124 countries but appears to be dwindling.

The WHO estimates that from the start of the epidemic, there have been more than 770 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 6.9 million fatalities caused by the virus.

Even though the WHO proclaimed the “global health emergency” to be over in May, the agency has urged member states to “maintain, and not dismantle, their anti-Covid-19 infrastructures,” urging them to continue using the systems of “early warning, surveillance and reporting, variant tracking, early clinical assistance [and] vaccination boosters for high-risk groups.”

The WHO’s bulletin from last Friday marked the final weekly update before shifting its focus from immediate emergency reaction to long-term “prevention, control, and management” of Covid-19. With the next one due at the end of September, the updates will now be released once a month.

In late 2019, Wuhan, China, reported the discovery of the novel coronavirus, eventually known as SARS-CoV-2. Its precise history and how it came to impact people are still unknown. In March 2020, the WHO designated the virus-caused illness Covid-19 and deemed it to be a pandemic. Many nations tried to contain the epidemic by ‘locking down’ their populations, requiring face masks and vaccinations, and harshly punishing anyone who questioned the efficacy of these precautions.