Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 22 February 2022
Edition 80
Overview
Globally, during the week of 14 to 20 February 2022, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths decreased by 21% and 8% respectively, compared to the previous week. Across the six WHO regions, over 12 million new cases and over 67 000 new deaths were reported. As of 20 February 2022, over 422 million confirmed cases and over 5.8 million deaths have been reported globally.
At the regional level, the Western Pacific Region reported a 29% increase in the number of new weekly cases while all other regions reported decreases. The number of new weekly deaths increased in the Western Pacific (+21%) and the African (+20%) regions, and decreased in the South-East Asia (-37%), the Regions of the Americas (-9%), the European (-5%) and Eastern Mediterranean regions (-4%).
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 vaccine effectiveness for the Delta and Omicron variants.