WHO "Last Week 18.73 Million New COVID-19 Cases... Slowing Increase"

On the 12th (local time) in Manhattan, New York, USA, citizens are passing by near the COVID-19 testing site sign. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week that the number of new COVID-19 cases exceeded 18 million. However, it explained that the rate of increase has somewhat slowed down.

According to WHO's weekly epidemiological report on the 19th (local time), from January 10 to 16, a total of 18,739,636 new COVID-19 cases were reported worldwide. This represents a 20% increase compared to the previous week.

However, the rate of increase in new cases has somewhat decreased. The rate of increase in new cases for the previous week (January 3?9) was 55%, and the week before that (December 27, 2021?January 2, 2022) was 71%.

The region with the highest rate of increase in new cases last week was Southeast Asia (145%). It was followed by the Eastern Mediterranean (68%), Western Pacific (38%), Americas (17%), and Europe (10%). In contrast, Africa (-27%) saw a decrease in the number of cases.

As of the 16th, the cumulative number of confirmed cases stands at 323,613,700. The cumulative number of deaths as of the 16th is 5,529,693. The number of new deaths last week was 45,543, a 4% increase compared to the previous week. Southeast Asia (12%) had the highest rate of increase in new deaths.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.