WHO Reported 18.73 Million Cases of Covid-19 Over the Past Week, An Increase of 20%

Global Covid-19 cases continue to rise amid the spread of the Omicron variant. WHO reported 18.73 million cases over the past week, between January 10 and 16, 2022. 

That's a 20% jump compared to the previous week's Covid-19. This additional infection brings the total number of global Covid-19 cases to 323.61 million.

"Despite the slowdown in global cases, all regions reported an increase in weekly cases except Africa which reported a 27% decrease," the WHO said in its Weekly Epidemiological Update on Covid-19 published Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian region reported the biggest spike in new cases last week, reaching 145%, followed by the Mediterranean increasing 68%, the Western Pacific (38%), the Americas (17%), and Europe (10%).

The global death toll from Covid-19 over the past week rose 4% to 45,543 compared to the previous week. That brings the total number of deaths to 5.52 million.

The death rate from Covid-19 increased in Southeast Asia by 12% and the Americas by 7%.

Countries With the Highest Number of Weekly Cases of Covid-19

Here are the five countries with the highest number of weekly cases last week:

1. United States with 4,688,466 new cases, similar to the previous week.
2. France with 2,012,943 new cases, up 26%
3. India with 1,594,160 new cases, up 150%
4. Italy with 1,268,153 new cases, up 25%
5. UK with 813,326 new cases, down 33%