(Paris) More than 2 million daily cases of COVID-19 were recorded on average worldwide over the week of 1er as of January 7, a figure that has doubled in 10 days, according to an AFP count.
An average of 2,106,118 daily cases has been recorded over the past seven days. The threshold of one million daily cases had been exceeded during the week from December 23 to 29, 2021.
The number of new daily cases has increased by 270% since the discovery in late November 2021 of the Omicron variant in Botswana and South Africa.
The vast majority of new cases are currently detected in Europe (7,211,290 cases in seven days, + 47% over the previous week) and the United States and Canada (4,808,098 cases, + 76%). These two regions represent respectively 49% and 33% of the cases recorded in the world in one week.
COVID-19 is accelerating very strongly on almost all continents: in Oceania (369,313 cases in seven days, + 224%), in Latin America and the Caribbean (1,126,862 cases, + 148%), in the Middle East ( 209,021 cases in seven days, + 116%) and in Asia (714,017 cases, + 145%).
Only Africa is currently recording balanced numbers (304,224 cases in seven days). But contaminations are there, as in Europe and in the United States / Canada zone, at their highest since the start of the pandemic.
The current wave of contamination is not, however, accompanied by an increase in deaths. Over the past seven days, an average of 6,237 deaths have been recorded each day around the world, the lowest since the end of October 2020, almost 15 months ago. Recently, up to 8,049 daily deaths were recorded between November 29 and December 5, just after the discovery of the Omicron variant.
These figures are based on reports communicated daily by the health authorities in each country. A significant proportion of the less severe or asymptomatic cases remain undetected despite the intensification of screening in many countries since the start of the pandemic, after the discovery of the virus at the end of 2019. In addition, testing policies differ from country to country. to the other.