Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 1 September 2023

Overview

In the last 28-day period (31 July to 27 August 2023), over 1.4 million new COVID-19 cases and over 1800 deaths were reported to WHO, an increase of 38% and a decrease of 50%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days. As of 27 August 2023, over 770 million confirmed cases and over 6.9 million deaths have been reported globally. Three WHO regions reported increases in the number of cases, whereas two regions reported decreases. While three WHO regions reported decreases in the number of deaths, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific regions reported increases in deaths.  In this WEU edition, global figures include all available data from the Region of the Americas since the start of the pandemic up to 6 August 2023 reported through COVID-19 specific channels. However, 28-day comparisons for this Region and its Member States are presented using the integrated respiratory viruses surveillance data reported through FluNet and FluID platforms. Additional updates from this Region can be found in the Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus weekly report. Currently, reported cases do not accurately represent infection rates due to the reduction in testing and reporting globally. During this 28-day period, 39% (92 of 234) of countries reported at least one case to WHO – a proportion that has been declining since mid-2022.

Please note that this is the last edition of the COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update. Moving forward, as WHO transitions its COVID-19 surveillance from an emergency response to long-term COVID-19 disease prevention, control and management, we will be providing updates every four-weeks, with the next edition set to be published on 28 September 2023. Disaggregated data will still be accessible on the WHO COVID-19 dashboard, where the full dataset is available for download. WHO has also recently updated COVID-19 surveillance reporting requirements for Member States, which can be found here.

In this edition, we include:

• The COVID-19 epidemiological update at the global and the regional levels
• An update on hospitalizations and ICU admissions
• An update on the SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest (VOI) and variants under monitoring (VUM)
• An update on the vaccine effectiveness of primary series and booster vaccination against the Omicron and its descendant lineages