COVID-19 deaths continue to drop as Africa records 25% decline – WHO

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths have continued to decline globally, with 3.1 million new cases and just over 54,000 new deaths, reported over the last week, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Compared to the previous week, this represents a nine per cent decrease in cases, while deaths remained similar, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update.

This continues the trend that has been observed since August.

During the week of Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, all regions reported a decline in the number of new cases, apart from Europe which remained similar to the week before.

The largest decline in weekly deaths was reported from Africa, with a 25 per cent decline, compared with the previous week.

Also, the largest decrease in new weekly cases was reported in Africa with 43 per cent decline, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean, 21 per cent.

Southeast Asia reported 19 per cent decline in new cases, the Americas 12 per cent and the Western Pacific 12 per cent.

The number of confirmed cases reported globally is now over 234 million, with fatalities just under 4.8 million.

A large decline in the number of new weekly deaths was also reported for all regions, except the Americas and Europe.

These regions both reported a similar number of weekly deaths as the previous week.

According to the update, the regions reporting the highest weekly case incidence rates per 100,000 population were Europe with 123.1 new cases per 100,000 and the Americas with 109.5 new cases per 100,000.

While the same two regions reported this highest weekly incidence in deaths per 100,000 population, the Americas had 2.4 new cases per 100,000 and Europe 1.6 new cases per 100,000.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States with 760,571 cases, the United Kingdom has 239,781 new cases similar to the number reported in the previous week.

Turkey has 197,277 new cases; similar to the number reported in the previous week, the Russian Federation has 165,623 new cases; 13 per cent increase, and India reported 161,158 new cases; a 21 per cent decrease.

Globally, the report found that cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 195 countries, territories or areas (two new countries added since last week).

Also, 145 countries (three new countries since last week) have reported cases of the Beta variant; and 99 countries have reported cases of the Gamma variant (four new countries since last week).

The Delta variant has been reported in 192 countries (seven new countries since last week) across all six WHO regions, as of Oct. 5.