With another steady increase in cases last week, the world is now adding more than 500,000 million cases a day, with the more transmissible Delta (B1617.2) SARS-CoV-2 variant now in 132 of the world's 197 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its latest weekly update on the pandemic.Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, the WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, said on Twitter today that there are marked regional differences and variations by and even within countries.
She also warned that deaths were up sharply, rising by 21% compared to the week before. "These trends are extremely concerning," she said.Global total nearing 200 million casesMuch of the recent rise is driven by substantial illness increases in the WHO's Americas