Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 1 February 2022

Globally, during the week of 24 to 30 January 2022, the number of new COVID-19 cases remained similar to that reported during the previous week, while the number of new deaths increased by 9%. Across the six WHO regions, over 22 million new cases and over 59 000 new deaths were reported. As of 30 January 2022, over 370 million confirmed cases and over 5.6 million deaths have been reported globally.

At the Regional level, increases in the number of new cases were reported by the Western Pacific (37%) the Eastern Mediterranean (24%) and the European (7%) regions, while a decrease was reported by the Region of the Americas (20%) and the South-East Asia Region (8%). The number of new cases reported in the African Region remained similar to the previous week. The number of new weekly deaths continued to increase in the South-East Asia Region (41%), the Eastern Mediterranean Region (32%) and the Region of the Americas (16%), while the African Region reported a decrease of 7%. The incidence of deaths remained similar to the previous week in the European and the Western Pacific regions.

• The geographic distribution of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs)