Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 31 August 2021

With just under 4.4 million new cases reported this week (23-29 August), the number of new cases reported globally remains similar to the previous week after increasing for nearly two months (since mid-June). In the past week all regions reported either a decline (Africa, Americas) or a similar trend (Europe, South-East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean) in new cases, except for the Western Pacific Region which reported a 7% increase as compared to previous week. The number of deaths reported globally this week were also similar to last week, with just over 67 000 new deaths reported. The Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific Regions reported an increase in the number of weekly deaths, 9% and 16% respectively, while the South-East Asia Region reported the largest decrease (20%). The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 216 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just under 4.5 million.

In this edition, a special focus update is provided on:

• SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta which includes updates on the geographic distribution of these VOCs as well as a description of a newly classified Variant of Interest (VOI), Mu.