Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 5 April 2022

Overview

After the increase observed during the first half of March 2022, the number of new COVID-19 cases has decreased for a second consecutive week, with a 16% decline during the week of 28 March through 3 April 2022 as compared to the previous week.

The number of new weekly deaths also decreased sharply (-43%) as compared to the previous week, during which an artificial spike in deaths was observed.

Across the six WHO regions, over nine million new cases and over 26 000 new deaths were reported, and all the regions show decreasing trends both in the number of new weekly cases and new weekly deaths.

As of 3 April 2022, just over 489 million cases and over 6 million deaths have been reported globally.

In this edition, we provide an update on the geographic distribution of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), including the prevalence and summary of current evidence of the Omicron variant. We also provide updates on recombinants and vaccine effectiveness for the Delta and Omicron variants.