Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 3 August 2023

Overview

Globally, over one million new COVID-19 cases and over 3100 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (3 to 30 July 2023). While five WHO regions have reported decreases in the number of both cases and deaths, the Western Pacific Region has reported an increase in the number of cases and a decrease in the number of deaths. As of 30 July 2023, over 768 million confirmed cases and over 6.9 million deaths have been reported globally. Currently, reported cases do not accurately represent infection rates due to the reduction in testing and reporting globally. During this 28-day period, 46% (107 of 234) of countries and territories reported at least one case to WHO – 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 the vaccine effectiveness of primary series and booster vaccination against the Omicron and its descendant lineages