Covid, WHO: Italy is second for weekly deaths and infections in Europe

Italy ranks second in Europe for the number of Covid victims in the week from 17 to 23 January, with 4.1 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants. The highest number of new deaths in the European region of the World Health Organization (WHO) was in fact reported by the Russian Federation (4,792, 3.3 per 100 thousand inhabitants, -7%), followed precisely by Italy which with 2,440 new weekly deaths (+ 24%) is also fourth worldwide after the USA, Russia and India. The United Kingdom follows (1,888 new deaths, 2.8 per 100 thousand, similar to the previous week). This is the picture that emerges from the latest WHO weekly bulletin on the progress of the pandemic. In general, the number of deaths per week in the European region is decreasing by 5%, with a total of over 21,000 reported deaths. Since mid-December 2021, the number of infections in the European area has continued to grow: the region reported over 10 million new cases this week, up 13% compared to the previous 7 days. And Italy remains among the top countries also in terms of weekly infections. With 1,231,741 cases in 7 days (2,065.2 per 100 thousand inhabitants, stable data compared to the previous week) it is second in the European region, after France which has over 2.4 million new cases (3,757.4 per 100 thousand inhabitants, + 21%). Third for infections in the area is Germany (715,470 new cases, 860.3 per 100 thousand, + 57%). Globally, Italy is still the fourth country for infections, behind the USA, France and India. Returning to the European region, 34 countries (55%) reported a 20% increase in weekly Covid cases. The highest increases are those reported by Kosovo (13,126 against 2,990 new cases, + 339%), Moldova (19,083 against 8,019 infections in 7 days, + 138%) and Armenia (4,094 against 1,762, + 132%). WORLDWIDE CASE GROWTH SLOWS, + 5% IN ONE WEEK Globally, the number of new cases of Covid-19 has increased by 5% in the last week (17-23 January) against a weekly growth of 20% recorded since 10 to January 16. The number of new deaths is stable. In the six WHO regions, more than 21 million new cases were reported this week, representing the highest number of weekly cases recorded since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 50,000 new deaths have been reported. As of January 23, over 346 million confirmed cases and over 5.5 million deaths have been reported worldwide. A slower increase in the incidence of cases was observed globally, with only half of the regions reporting an increase in the number of new cases weekly, compared with five out of six regions in the previous week. The Eastern Mediterranean region recorded the largest increase in the number of new cases (39%), followed by the Southeast Asia region (36%) and the European region (13%) The number of new weekly deaths increased in the South -East Asia (44%), the Eastern Mediterranean region (15%) and the Americas region (7%), while the other regions all reported a decline in new weekly deaths.