The World Health Organization said Wednesday it's concerned that several member states have significantly cut back on testing for COVID-19, making the available data less timely, less representative and less robust. "This inhibits our collective ability to track where the virus is, how it is spreading and how it is evolving: information and analyses that remain critical to effectively end the acute phase of the pandemic," the agency said in its weekly epidemiological update.
COVID remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and it's too early to stop tracking and monitoring it, the WHO warned.
On a brighter note, the number of global new cases fell in the latest week after climbing for two weeks. Deaths rose, however, although that is understood to be linked to changes in how deaths are counted in some parts of the Americas and Asia.
The average number of deaths in the U.S. fell again after dipping below 800 on Tuesday for the first time since omicron took hold, according to a New York Times tracker. The seven-day average death tally stands at 716, down 42% from two weeks ago. New cases are averaging 29,253, down 9% from two weeks ago and hospitalizations are down 34% at an average of 17,464. The CDC said the BA.2 variant accounted for 55% of new cases in the U.S. in the week through Saturday.
On a global basis, total cases rose above 485.2 million and total deaths are above 6.13 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. still leading the way with 80 million cases and 978,692 deaths.
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