PAHO Weekly COVID-19 Epidemiological Update - 15 March 2022

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and up to 15 March 2022, a cumulative total of over 456 million COVID-19 cases including more than 6 million deaths were reported from all six WHO regions. Overall, trends during epidemiological week (EW) 10 (March 6 to 12) slightly increased in terms of cases where globally over 11.4 million cases were reported (8% increase). Deaths however continue declining globally, with 42,523 deaths reported during EW10 (19% decline). Figure 1. Within the WHO regions, cases increased in Western Pacific Region (WPRO) (28.9%), Africa region (AFRO) (12.3%) and Europe region (EURO) (1.9%) while they decline in all the others (range: -23.7% to -19%). In terms of deaths, all WHO regions reported declines ranging from - 48.8% in Eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO) to -14.8% in Southeast Asia region (SEARO) to the exception of WPRO, were deaths increased by 12.4%.

In the Region of the Americas, approximately 149 million cases of COVID-19 including 2.6 million deaths were reported as of March 15, 2022. COVID-19 cases in the region continued to decline for the eighth consecutive week with more 901 thousand new cases reported in EW 10 – a decline of 19% compared to EW 9. Similarly, the downward trajectory of weekly deaths continued for a fifth consecutive week with 15.523 new deaths reported during EW 10 – a 18.4% decline.

Trends for COVID-19 hospitalizations and/or ICU admissions are also generally declining across the region.