Global COVID cases up 80% as new subvariant rises
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, the World Health Organization said on Friday, days after designating a new “variant of interest”.
The WHO declared in May that COVID is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths, AFP reported.
it said that nations reported nearly 1.5m new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. However, the number of deaths fell by 57% to 2,500. The WHO warned that the reported number of cases and deaths do not reflect the true numbers, in part because countries carry out far less testing and monitoring than during earlier stages of the pandemic. Many of the new cases came in the Western Pacific region, which saw infections jump by 137%, the WHO said.