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For the fourth week in a row, the number of new covid-19 infections has increased, according to the WHO. Last week, 4.6 million new cases were reported to the World Health Organization.
After a steady decline in the spring, the number of cases in the world is increasing, new figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show. According to the update, the sharpest increase has taken place in the eastern Mediterranean in countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. But even in Europe, there has been an increase of 15 percent between June 27 and July 3.
At the same time, the WHO states that the figures should be interpreted with caution, as the structure of how the testing is carried out in different countries varies.
More hospitalized
According to the European Agency for Communicable Disease Control (ECDC), the number of cases among people aged 65 and over had increased in almost all the countries that report figures. By the end of week 26, they had increased by an average of 32 percent compared to the week before. Several European countries are also reporting an increase in patients being cared for in hospitals.
In Sweden, an increased spread of infection has led to the National Board of Health and Welfare last week being commissioned to start collecting statistics again on the number of people hospitalized for covid-19. It is also the first time during the pandemic that the spread of infection takes place during the summer.
– But the increase is from very low levels. The situation is not serious for the population as a whole and we will not introduce any new recommendations or measures, said the Public Health Agency’s Director General Karin Tegmark Wisell during a press conference on Thursday.
Elderly affected
One of the countries in Europe where the spread is now serious is France. There, about 880,000 cases have been confirmed in the past week, according to ECDC. In the first week of June, there were 1,600,000 confirmed cases.
In the United Kingdom, too, there is an increased spread of infection and more hospitalized people. According to figures from the British health authority UKHSA, the main increase is among people over 75 years of age. Mary Ramsay, a professor at UKSH, tells the BBC that there is concern that people in the age group have not replenished booster doses of the covid-19 vaccine, leading to reduced protection in a fragile group.
According to the ECDC’s forecast, the number of infected people will continue to increase in most European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The vaccines remain the most effective protection against serious illness and death. But newer variants of the virus have been shown to infect even those who are fully vaccinated.
Facts
Virus variants
During the year, several new sub-variants of omikron appeared. According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, those who are described as “of special importance” are the four sub-variants BA.1, BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5.
BA.5, the latest sub-variant of the omikron virus version, continues to gain ground in Sweden.
In May, the first case of BA.4 was discovered in the country, but it does not seem to give any other disease picture than BA.2.
The mRNA vaccines that Pfizer and Moderna are now testing contain drawings for proteins from both the omicron and the original Wuhan variant of the new coronavirus.
One hope is that vaccines targeted at several virus variants can provide broader protection against future variants as well.
In parallel with the development of updated vaccines, attempts are also being made to give higher doses of Pfizer’s original vaccine, to see if it provides better protection.
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