Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 6 July 2023

Overview

Globally, over 885 000 new cases and over 4900 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (5 June to 2 July 2023). While five WHO regions have reported decreases in the number of both cases and deaths, the African Region has reported a decline in cases but an increase in deaths – albeit from a relatively low baseline. As of 2 July 2023, over 767 million confirmed cases and over 6.9 million deaths have been reported globally. Reported cases are not an accurate representation of infection rates due to the reductions in testing and reporting globally. During this 28-day period, 56% (131 of 234) of countries and territories reported at least one case – a proportion that has been declining since mid-2022.

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 vaccine effectiveness of primary series and booster vaccination against Omicron and its descendant lineages