WHO warns of new wave of COVID-19 spreading from South Asia

Transferring a COVID-19 patient to a hospital in Mumbai, India.

The World Health Organization (WHO) weekly report on the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the world released on April 7 shows that the new outbreak concentrated in South Asia tends to spread rapidly to Southeast Asia and West Asia.

Nearly 3.3 million new cases have been reported over the past 28 days. While this is an underreporting due to reduced testing, the changes in rates and deaths still provide a snapshot of the global COVID-19 situation.

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

In the WHO map dividing the epidemic level by color, countries such as Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia are shown in red - the highest warning level, while the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Bhutan are shown in orange.

In South Asia, India recorded the highest number of new cases with 34,785 cases, an increase of 680%, Nepal had 272 more cases, an increase of 533% and Maldives had 72 cases, an increase of 324%.

The Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions showed increases of 289% and 147% in new cases, respectively, and deaths of 36% and 118%, respectively.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia are still showing green and blue, showing a downward trend.

On the COVID-19 mortality rate map, India, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh... are also shown in red.

According to the WHO report, Europe continues to lead the 6 epidemic regions, with more than 1.38 million new cases and 10,417 more deaths, down 13% and 5% respectively. This decrease is mainly due to the decrease in the number of new cases in some countries with the most infections in recent times such as Russia and Germany.

Russia's new cases fell 9% to 313,998, while the number of deaths was about the same as the previous period at 1,014. Germany saw a sharp 64% drop in new cases to 139,261, and a 39% drop in deaths to 1,090. The UK did not record many new cases, but had the highest number of deaths in the region at 2,678.

Meanwhile, France is on the list of countries with the highest number of new cases with 193,359 cases, an increase of 98%.

Twenty-two of the 61 European countries recorded increases of more than 20% during this period, causing orange-red (increases and sharp increases) and green-blue (decreases and sharp decreases) to mix in the European region in the map showing changes in the rate of new cases.

The Americas ranked second in the world with nearly 1.05 million new 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.

The Western Pacific region ranked third with 736,177 new cases and 2,494 new deaths, down 48% and 65% respectively, mainly due to the decline in the epidemic situation in three epidemic hotspots including Japan, South Korea and China.

Africa has recorded few new cases, but a sharp upward trend is evident in some North African countries./

According to VNA

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