Global COVID-19 cases have declined for the third week in a row, with deaths easing off to levels seen early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest assessments of the pandemic.At a briefing today, however, WHO officials urged countries not to drop their guard, as a few locations report spikes and some—like the United States—see early signs of new rises.Citing concerns about a case uptick, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today extended the mask order for public transit by 2 weeks.Global cases, deaths both dropIn its latest weekly update on the pandemic, the WHO said cases dropped 24% last week from the week before, with all regions reporting declining cases.Of about 7 million cases reported last week, the five countries logging the most included South Korea, Germany, France, Vietnam, and Italy.
Deaths were down 18%, with the most reported from the United States.Of virus samples sequenced over the past 30 days, 99.2% were the Omicron variant.
Among Omicron subvariants, the WHO said it is monitoring BA.4 and BA.5, which have mutations that might contribute to immune escape.
It said both have S-gene dropout, which helps distinguish them from the more dominant BA.2 and is useful for tracking the spread.