Since peaking in January, COVID-19 cases worldwide have steadily fallen, dropping 11% last week compared with the week before, and COVID deaths have declined 3%, but cases continue to rise in the Americas region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its weekly update.In US news, pediatric cases have doubled in the past 4 weeks, while a report reveals that the Omicron variant has been particularly deadly in older people.Cases up 9% in AmericasNational officials reported more than 3.3 million cases in the week ending May 29, with more than 9,600 deaths, the WHO said.Cases last week fell in four WHO global regions but increased 9% in the Americas and 1% in the Eastern Mediterranean.The number of weekly deaths climbed 18% in the Western Pacific, 15% in Africa, and 13% in the Americas, the agency said.
Deaths declined elsewhere across the globe."These trends should be interpreted with caution," the WHO warned, "as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected."The most new weekly cases were reported from the United States (736,298 new cases; +3%), China (576,367 new cases; +6%), Australia (294,128 new cases; -18%), Japan (203,365 new cases; -18%), and Germany (183 844 new cases; -38%).
The United States also had the most COVID-19 deaths (2,461), followed by Brazil, Italy, Russia, and China, with those four nations ranging from 578 to 826 new deaths.The Omicron variant accounts for almost all SARS-CoV-2 samples analyzed, with the BA.2 subvariant still highly dominant, though it declined a bit as a proportion of all viruses, from 78% to 75%.