Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 1 March 2022

Overview

Globally, during the week of 21 through 27 February 2022, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to decline by 16% and 10% respectively, as compared to the previous week. Across the six WHO regions, over 10 million new cases and over 60 000 new deaths were reported. As of 27 February 2022, over 433 million confirmed cases and over 5.9 million deaths have been reported globally.

At the regional level, the Western Pacific Region reported a 32% increase in the number of new weekly cases while all other regions reported decreases. The number of new weekly deaths increased in the Western Pacific (+22%) and the Eastern Mediterranean (+4%) Regions, whilst a decreasing trend have been reported by the Regions of Africa (-59%), South-East Asia (-18%), Europe (-13%) and Americas (-8%).

In this edition, we provide updates on the geographic distribution of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), including the spread and prevalence of the Omicron variant.