COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update
Global overview
Data as of 1 May 2022
Globally, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths has continued to decline since the end of March 2022. During the week of 25 April through 1 May 2022, over 3.8 million cases and over 15 000 deaths were reported, decreases of 17% and 3% respectively, as compared to the previous week (Figure 1).
However, not all the Regions reported decreasing trends: the number of new weekly cases increased in the African Region (+31%) and in the Region of the Americas (+13%), while the number of new weekly deaths increased in the South-East Asia Region (+69%) largely due to a delay in the reporting of deaths from India.
As of 1 May 2022, over 500 million confirmed cases and over six million deaths have been reported globally.
These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing their COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected.
Fonte: World Health Organization – Press Release
Figure 1. COVID-19 cases reported weekly by WHO Region, and global deaths, as of 1 May 2022**
The highest number of new weekly deaths were reported from the United States of America (2 199 new deaths; – 5%), India (1 650 new deaths; +273%), the Russian Federation (1 129 new deaths; -19%), France (900 new deaths; +2%), and Italy (898 new deaths; -11%).
Table 1. Newly reported and cumulative COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths, by WHO Region, as of 1 May 2022**
Figure 2. COVID-19 cases per 100 000 population reported by countries, territories and areas, 25 April - 1 May 2022*
Figure 3. COVID-19 deaths per 100 000 population reported by countries, territories and areas, 25 April - 1 May 2022*
Special Focus: Update on SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest and variants of concern
The classifications of variants will be revised as needed to reflect the continuous evolution of circulating variants and their changing epidemiology. Criteria for variant classification, and the lists of currently circulating and previously circulating VOCs, VOIs and VUMs, are available on the WHO Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants website. National authorities may choose to designate other variants and are strongly encouraged to investigate and report newly emerging variants and their impact.
Geographic spread and prevalence of VOCs The Omicron variant of concern is the dominant variant circulating globally, accounting for nearly all sequences reported to GISAID. Since its designation as a VOC by WHO on 26 November 2021, Omicron has continued to evolve, leading to variants with slightly different genetic constellations of mutations. Each constellation may differ in the public health risk it poses, including the change in epidemiology and or the severity profile. The main features of Omicron sublineages are the high growth advantage over other variants, which is mainly driven by immune evasion. Omicron sublineages have led and are still leading to a high number of cases and, as a result, to a high number of hospitalizations and deaths.
Three Omicron sublineages BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 have acquired a few additional mutations that may impact their characteristics (BA.4 and BA.5 have the del69/70, L452R and F486V mutations; BA.2.12.1 has the L452Q and S704L mutations). Based on GISAID data and reports from WHO regional offices and countries, the number of cases and the number of countries reporting the detection of these three variants are rising. Limited evidence to date, does not indicate a rise in hospital admissions or other signs of increased severity. Preliminary data from South Africa using S gene target failure data (absent in BA.2, present in BA.4 and BA.5) indicate no difference in the risk of hospitalization for BA.4 and BA.5, as compared to BA.1; however, the short follow-up of BA.4 and BA.5 cases does not allow for conclusions on disease severity of these sublineages to be drawn at this stage.
WHO continues to closely monitor the BA.4, BA.5, and BA.2.12.1 variants as part of Omicron VOC and provide further updates as more evidence on severity becomes available. WHO requests countries to continue to be vigilant, to monitor and report sequences, as well as to conduct independent and comparative analyses of the different emerging variants.
Fonte: World Health Organization – Edition 90, published 4 May 2022