Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 27 April 2023

Globally, nearly 2.8 million new cases and over 16 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (27 March to 23 April 2023), a decrease of 23% and 36%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (27 February to 26 March 2023). Contrary to the overall trend, increases in reported cases and deaths continued to be seen in the South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions and in several individual countries elsewhere. As of 23 April 2023, over 764 million confirmed cases and over 6.9 million deaths have been reported globally.

In this edition, we include:

• The COVID-19 epidemiological update at the global and the regional levels
• An update on the SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest (VOI) and variants under monitoring (VUM)
• An update on COVID-19 hospitalizations