Weekly COVID-19 Reports Update

Weekly Epidemiological Update

17 August

The global number of new cases has been increasing for the last 2 months with over 4.4 million cases reported in the past week (9 – 15 August 2021), bringing the cumulative number of globally to cases to over 206 million. This increasing trend is largely attributed to increases in the Western Pacific Region and the Region of the Americas which reported 14% and 8% increases respectively as compared to the previous week. Overall, the number of deaths reported remained similar with over 66 000 deaths this week, as compared to the previous week. While the African Region reported the largest percentage decrease in case and death incidence, 23% and 18% respectively, data from the weekend is incomplete which might lead to an overestimation of the percentage change. The Western Pacific and the Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported the highest proportionate increases in death incidence of 23% and 15% respectively over the last seven days

In this edition, a special focus updates are provided on:

• SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta which includes updates on the geographic distribution of VOCs
• COVID-19 in Prisons

Weekly Operational Update

16 August

In this edition of the COVID-19 Weekly Operational Update, highlights of country-level actions and WHO support to countries include:

• Facilitating procurement of 1.6 million antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests to strengthen COVID-19 diagnostic in Indonesia
• The roll-out of Go.Data contact tracing tool in Ukraine
• Donated COVID-19 vaccine doses by France arrive in Somalia
• Community health at the center of COVID-19 vaccination in indigenous communities in Paraguay
• Online learning opportunities to support hospital infection prevention and control committees in Azerbaijan
• Progress on a subset of indicators from the SPRP 2021 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
• Updates on WHO’s financing to support countries in SPRP 2021 implementation and provision of critical supplies

With science as a common language, countries, WHO and partners continue to work in solidarity against COVID-19

Video highlights from work in countries

Read more stories of ongoing work in countries around the world in support of the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan 2021

This week, we received additional funding from the European Commission (ECHO) and the International Development Association (IDA). Thanks to all donors and partners contributing to the WHO COVID-19 Response

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