The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that, from the beginning of the pandemic until November 10, 2024, there have been reported more than 776 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than seven million deaths in 234 different countries.
This is what the WHO has reported in a special edition of the epidemiological update on Covid-19 that offers an overview of the situation since the disease was first reported almost five years ago. In the last four-week reporting period, From October 14 to November 10, 2024, 77 countries reported cases of Covid-19 and 27 deaths worldwide. The number of reported cases decreased by 39% and deaths by 36% compared to the previous 28 days. Although the WHO warns that these data should be interpreted with caution due to the decline in testing and sequencing, along with delays in reporting in many countries.
In this sense, the majority of deaths associated with Covid-19 occurred in 2020, 2021 and 2022, with an increase in immunity that led to a significant decrease in deaths. Furthermore, as highlighted by the WHO, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, “largely circulates without clear seasonality and continues to infect, causing severe acute illness and post-Covid-19 illness.”
Likewise, the impact varies by country, and the WHO’s ability to control the circulation, severity and evolution of the virus, which is made difficult by “the reduction in surveillance, testing, sequencing and limited integration in long-term prevention programs. At this point, WHO regrets that Member States have not adopted the necessary infectious disease measures longer term, and reporting.
Fewer hospital admissions
Overall, ICU admissions per 1,000 hospitalizations have been declining since the peak in July 2021, when the rate was 245 per 1,000 hospitalizations, falling below 132 per 1,000 hospitalizations in early 2022, and below 69 per 1,000 hospitalizations by the end of 2023. In early 2024, there was an increase in ICU admissions per 1,000 hospitalizations, exceeding 191 per 1,000 hospitalizations in March, and falling to 108 per 1,000 hospitalizations in early November 2024.
Meanwhile, deaths per 1,000 hospitalizations showed a steady decline from June 2021, when they reached 253 per 1,000 hospitalizations, to a low of 59 per 1,000 hospitalizations in August 2023. Since January 2024, the rate has continued to decline to reach 41 deaths per 1,000 hospitalizations at the beginning of November 2024.
The post-Covid-19 condition, called by some Persistent Covid, continues to represent for the WHO “a significant burden on health systems, since it is estimated that 6 percent of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections give rise to symptoms of this type.”
Although severe Covid-19 is a major risk factor for long Covid, more than 90% of long Covid cases arise after mild Covid-19 due to the high volume of infections. «Vaccination seems to offer a protective effect, reducing the probability of developing persistent Covid,” the WHO points out.
Vaccination
Regarding the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, it has evolved since 2021, and initially WHO highlights that vaccination rates were higher in high-income countries. Starting in January 2024, the WHO moved from measuring continued Covid-19 vaccination coverage since the start of the vaccine rollout to measuring annual uptake.
By the end of 2023, 67% of the world’s population had completed the primary series and 32% had received at least one booster dose, although only 5% of people in low-income countries received a booster dose.
Using the new monitoring approach, at the end of the third quarter of 2024, 39.2 million people from 90 Member States (representing 31 percent of the world’s population) received a dose this year, and 14.8 million in the third quarter alone.
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