COVID-19: WHO marks many South and Southeast Asian countries as red and orange

According to data received by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the morning of April 7 (Vietnam time), in the past 28 days, there have been nearly 3.3 million new COVID-19 cases reported. Although this is an incomplete report due to a decrease in testing, the change in the rate and number of deaths still reflects the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic globally.

Over the past 28 days, the world has recorded 23,849 new deaths from COVID-19. The number of new cases and deaths decreased by 28% and 30%, respectively, compared to the previous cycle.

COVID-19: WHO đánh dấu đỏ, cam nhiều nước Nam - Đông Nam Á - Ảnh 1.

Map showing the change in the rate of new cases in the current cycle compared to the previous cycle - Photo: WHO

Topping the list of the six epidemic regions continues to be Europe, with more than 1.38 million new cases and 10,417 new deaths, down 13% and 5% respectively.

The decline is largely due to a cooling of some of the countries with the highest number of cases in recent times, such as Russia and Germany. Russia saw a 9% decrease to 313,998 new cases, although the number of deaths was approximately the same as the previous cycle at 1,014. Germany saw a sharp 64% decrease in new cases to 139,261, and a 39% decrease in deaths to 1,090.

Britain has not reported a large number of cases but has the highest number of deaths in the region at 2,678.

The Western Pacific region (which includes Vietnam) ranked third with 736,177 new cases and 2,494 new deaths, down sharply by 48% and 65%, mainly due to the continued cooling trend of the three "hottest" countries: Japan - South Korea - China.

Meanwhile, France appears on the list of countries with the highest number of cases with 193,359 cases, an increase of 98%. There are 22 out of 61 European countries that recorded an increase of more than 20% during this cycle, causing the orange-red (increase and increase sharply) and green-blue (decrease and decrease sharply) colors to mix in the European region on the map showing the change in the rate of new cases.

The Americas ranked second in the world with nearly 1.05 million cases (down 29%) and 10,152 new deaths (down 34%), of which the US still accounted for the majority with 626,532 new cases and 7,458 new deaths due to COVID-19.

The color represents a strong new wave centered around the geographical South Asian country of India that has tended to spread rapidly to geographical Southeast Asia and West Asia, corresponding to the Western Pacific, Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean epidemiological zones.

Despite reporting limited cases, the two epidemiological regions of Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean showed increases in new cases of 289% and 147%, respectively, and deaths of 36% and 118%, respectively.

WHO "colored red" many countries in the new case map, including Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia...; colored orange for the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Bhutan...

India, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh... are all marked in red on the map showing changes in COVID-19 mortality rates.

Vietnam and neighboring countries including Cambodia and Laos are still colored in green and blue, showing a downward trend.

Africa has reported very few cases, but a sharp increase is evident in several North African countries.

XBB.1.5 - Omicron's recombinant sub-strain assessed by WHO as having the strongest ability to spread quickly and escape immunity but unchanged in virulence - is still the dominant strain, accounting for 47.14% of the SARS-CoV-2 gene sequences decoded for global surveillance.

Other XBB lines also take second place with 15.26%.

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