The number of COVID-19 infections are on the rise around the worldwith an increase of 52% in one month, and the trend is expected to continue in the coming winter months, warned this Friday the World Health Organization (OMS).
Los most recent data of the health agency – which cover the four weeks from November 20 to December 17, 2023 – showed the pronounced increase of 850,000 new reported cases of COVID-19, 52%, compared to the previous 28 days.
The increase would be higher than reported
But no matter how big it seems, it is It is highly likely that the increase will be much greatersaid the WHO spokesperson in statements to the press in Geneva.
“We know that around the world, and we have seen it in many of our own countries, reports have decreased, surveillance centers have decreased, vaccination centers have decreasedhave been dismantled or closed… this leads to an incomplete picture and unfortunately we should expect more cases than we have officially reported,” noted Christian Lindmeier.
More than 118,000 hospitalizations
The health agency specified that between November 13 and December 10, more than 118,000 new hospitalizations due to COVID-19 were recorded and more than 1,600 new admissions to intensive care units, with an overall increase of 23% and 51% respectively in countries that systematically report to WHO.
Between November 20 and December 17, 2023, 105 countries documented cases of COVID19 and 50 countries reported deaths from COVID-19.
New variant
Most infections have been caused by a new strain of coronavirus called JN.1, which the WHO is currently observing with special attention and which declared “variant of interest” on December 18 due to its rapid increase in prevalence in recent weeks.
According to available reports, the JN.1 variant was first detected in the United States and then spread to dozens of countries. The strain evolved from the Omicron variantwhich was linked to a spike in COVID infections in 2022.
As of December 17, 2023, more than 772 million confirmed cases and almost seven million deaths in the world since the first case of coronavirus in November 2019.
2024-01-05 17:55:08
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