Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 27 July 2021

Overview

The global number of new cases reported last week (19-25 July 2021) was over 3.8 million, an 8% increase as compared to the previous week. An average of around 540 000 cases were reported each day over the past week as compared to 490 000 cases reported daily the week before. This increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Region of the Americas and the Western Pacific Region. The number of deaths reported this week increased sharply with over 69 000 deaths, a 21% increase when compared to the previous week. The cumulative number of cases and deaths reported globally is almost 194 million and over 4 million respectively. If these trends continue, it is expected that the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks.

In this edition, two special focus updates are provided:

• The evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness in real world settings.
• An overview of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta which includes updates on the geographic distribution of VOCs.

*An amended version of the weekly epidemiological update was republished 28 July 2021