The World Health Organisation recently released its weekly assessment of the pandemic released on Wednesday (August 3), according to which the new coronavirus cases fell by 9 per cent globally last week but the deaths remained steady. As per the report, 6.5 million virus cases and more than 14,000 fatalities were reported in the previous week. The US, South Korea, and Germany reported the highest numbers of new coronavirus cases. The United States reported the highest number of deaths. The WHO recently expressed concern that countries’ recent reductions in Covid testing and other alert systems have seriously hampered its efforts in monitoring COVID-19.
As per the health organisation, the number of cases decreased in Europe by 35 per cent but increased in the Western Pacific and Asia by nearly 20 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, AP reported.
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The Office for National Statistics in the UK last week revealed that the number of COVID-19 cases has decreased to nearly 1 in 20 people, indicating that the Covid wave has reached its peak in the country. Medical experts predict that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to fall in the coming weeks. However, as per specialists, COVID-19 prevention should continue as the medical system is still under pressure.
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After finding four cases, Chinese authorities this week sealed off a part of Wuhan. Despite the social and economic disruption in the country, the authorities said that its “Zero-Covid Policy’ could persist for years.
As per WHO, two subvariants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, were responsible for the recent Covid waves. It claimed that between 64 -70 per cent of the sequences shared with the biggest public viral database in the world were of BA.5.
(With inputs from agencies)
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