WHO says India’s death data report for last week delayed

GENEVA, May 4 (The CONNECT) -Ahead of releasing the Global Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already spoken about the delay in India reporting its data late last week.

The press conference, scheduled for tomorrow, assumes significance in view of a plethora of speculations over India’s death data and some suggesting that figures could be much higher than the official announcement

The WHO is scheduled to address a global media meet tomorrow (Thursday) and the new estimates from the World Health Organization show the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. 

The death toll, or excess mortality, includes deaths associated with COVID-19 directly, due to the disease, or indirectly, due to the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society, the UN health body said.

Dr Samira Asma, Assistant Director-General, Data, Analytics, and Delivery for Impact, Dr Socé Fall, Assistant Director-General for Emergencies Response, Dr Stephen MacFeely, Director, Department of Data and Analytics, Dr Somnath Chatterji, Senior Advisor, Department of Data and Analytics and Dr William Msemburi, Technical Officer, Department of Data and Analytics, will address the media.

Meanwhile, releasing the last week’s data the WHO said globally, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths has continued to decline since the end of March 2022. During the week of 25 April through 1 May 2022, over 3.8 million cases and over 15 000 deaths were reported, decreases of 17% and 3% respectively, as compared to the previous week.

However, not all the Regions reported decreasing trends: the number of new weekly cases increased in the African Region (+31%) and in the Region of the Americas (+13%), while the number of new weekly deaths increased in the South-East Asia Region (+69%) largely due to a delay in the reporting of deaths from India.

As of 1 May 2022, over 500 million confirmed cases and over six million deaths have been reported globally. These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing their COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected.

At the country level, the highest number of new weekly cases were reported from Germany (558 958 new cases; - 24%), Italy (384 825 new cases; -8%), France (382 208 new cases; -30%), the Republic of Korea (380 455 new cases; - 35%), and the United States of America (372 167 new cases; +27%). The highest number of new weekly deaths were reported from the United States of America (2 199 new deaths; - 5%), India (1 650 new deaths; +273%), the Russian Federation (1 129 new deaths; -19%), France (900 new deaths; +2%), and Italy (898 new deaths; -11%).

The South-East Asia Region reported over 123 000 new weekly cases, a 24% decline as compared to the previous week, continuing the decreasing trend observed since January 2022. However, Timor-Leste and India reported increases in new weekly cases of 57% (11 vs 7 new cases) and 40% (21 643 vs 15 448 new cases), respectively. The highest numbers of new cases were reported from Thailand (96 610 new cases; 138.4 new cases per 100 000; - 29%), India (21 643 new cases; 1.6 new cases per 100 000; +40%), and Indonesia (2890 new cases; 1.1 new cases per 100 000; -32%). New weekly deaths increased by 69% in the Region as compared to the previous week, with over 2600 new deaths reported, mostly due to a delay in reporting of deaths from India. The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (1650 new deaths;