Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 26 October 2021

Globally, the numbers of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths increased slightly during the past week, with over 2.9 million cases and over 49 000 new deaths, a 4% and 5% increase respectively. With the exception of the European region, which continues for the fourth consecutive week to reported an increase in new COVID-19 cases (18% increase as compared with the previous week), other regions reported a decline. The largest decrease in new weekly cases was reported from the African Region (21%), followed by the Western Pacific Region (17%). The European and South-East Asia regions reported an increase in new weekly COVID-19 deaths, 14% and 13% respectively, as compared with the previous week. The largest decline in new weekly deaths was reported from the Western Pacific region showing a 13% decrease as compared to the previous week.

As of 24 October, over 243 million confirmed cases and over 4.9 million deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

In this edition, three special focus updates are provided on:

• WHO COVID-19 global rapid risk assessment
• Age and sex distribution from WHO COVID-19 global surveillance 
• SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) including an update on geographic prevalence and a focus on the Delta lineage AY.4.2 is also provided