The decline in Covid cases and deaths reported worldwide continues, but with a marked rebound in infections between the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia, where the boom in India stands out: the country associated with the “Arturo” variant (XBB. 1.16) – The recombinant of Omicron, which has also received so much social media spotlight that it deserves the nickname referring to one of the brightest stars in the firmament, registers +251% in the latest bulletin published by World Health Cases in 28 days organization. Instead, infection growth in Europe is slowing. In total, more than 3.7 million cases and more than 26,000 deaths were reported worldwide in the period from February 20 to March 19, representing -31% and -46% respectively compared to the previous 28 days. As of March 19, there have been over 760 million confirmed infections and over 6.8 million deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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The WHO reaffirms that “current trends are underestimates of the true number of infections and reinfections” by Sars-CoV-2, “as prevalence surveys show. This is partly due to reduced testing and delays in reporting in many countries. The data presented may be incomplete and should therefore be interpreted with caution,” warns the Geneva agency, which monitors changes in epidemiological trends, now making comparisons over 28 days intervals because “this helps account for reporting delays and smooths out weekly fluctuations in the number of infections and provides a clearer picture of where the pandemic is accelerating or slowing down.”
At the regional level, the number of new cases in the last 28 days has therefore increased in three of the 6 WHO regions (+89% Eastern Mediterranean, +70% Southeast Asia, +9% Europe), while they have decreased in the other three ( -58% Pacific West, -43% Africa, -28% America). New deaths decreased in 5 regions (-76% Western Pacific, -57% Africa, -38% America, -24% Southeast Asia, -15% Europe), while in the Eastern Mediterranean they increased by 68%.
In the last 28 days, most new Covid cases were reported from the United States (792,202, -29%), the Russian Federation (339,564, +25%), China (320,029, -50%), Japan (291,672, -73 %) and Germany (281,468, -18%), while the United States (8,187, -39%), the United Kingdom (2,474, -9%), Japan (1,898, -71%) and Brazil lead the way in reported deaths (1,587, -15%) and China (1,472, -85%).
For the European region, the WHO report shows 1.5 million infections and 9,607 deaths in the last 28 days. Twenty-nine countries recorded increases in new cases of 20% or more, with the highest increases reported by Kyrgyzstan (+461%), Armenia (+216%) and Ukraine (+201%). The Russian Federation (339,564, 232.7/100,000, +25%), Germany (281,468, 338.4/100,000, -18%) and Austria (139,925, 1,572.0/100,000; 100,000, +33) reported the most new infections ). %), while for new deaths the United Kingdom (2,474, 3.6/100,000, -9%), the Russian Federation (1,035, less than 1/100,000, -6%) and Germany (985, 1.2 / 100,000, -27%).
KRAKEN AND ARTURO – Meanwhile, the proportion of Sars-CoV-2 sequences attributable to octopus (XBB.1.5), the only variant considered “of interest” (Voi) by the World Health Organization in its new classification system, is growing worldwide . According to the update, octopus prevalence — reported in 85 countries — has increased to 37.7% globally, up from 29% in the period January 30-February 5 (week 5). Regarding the 5 monitored variants (Vum), all show a stable or declining trend, except for the XBB sub-lines, which increased from 5.7% at week 5 to 12.5% at week 9.
Omicron’s XBB family also includes XBB.1.16, which experts on social media have renamed “Arturo” – after the red giant, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, the fourth brightest in the sky – and considering that it may responsible for the new peak of infections registered by India. Yesterday, pediatrician Vipin M. Vashishtha, former coordinator of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics and member of the WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net (Vsn) initiative, tweeted the first case of Arcturus intercepted in China, stating that at the moment it was about the subline XBB.1.16 was found in 17 countries, including Canada and Singapore, for a total of 474 isolates.