Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 14 September 2021

Overview

With nearly 4 million new cases reported globally in the past week (6-12 September), this represents the first substantial decline in weekly cases in more than two months. All regions reported declines in new cases as compared to the previous week. The number of deaths reported globally in the past week also decreased as compared to the previous week, with just over 62 000 new deaths. The African Region reported an increase in the number of weekly deaths (7%), while the South-East Asia Region reported the largest decrease (20%). The American and Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported slightly smaller decreases, 9% and 6% respectively, while the numbers of deaths reported in the European and the Western Pacific Regions were similar to last week. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 224 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just over 4.6 million.

In this edition, two special focus updates are provided on:

• SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta which includes updates on the geographic distribution of VOCs
• COVID-19 in children and adolescents.