Continue the drop in Covid cases and deaths reported in the world, but with a clear recovery in infections between the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia where the boom in India stands out: the country grappling with the ‘Arturo’ variant (XBB.1.16) – Omicron recombinant that has also come under the spotlight on social networks, so much so that it deserves the nickname that refers to one of the brightest stars in the firmament – registers +251% cases in 28 days in the latest bulletin released by the World Health Organization. Instead, the growth of infections in Europe is slowing down. Overall, globally in the period from February 20 to March 19, more than 3.7 million cases and more than 26,000 deaths were reported, equal to -31% and -46% respectively compared to the previous 28 days. As of March 19, since the beginning of the pandemic there are over 760 million confirmed infections and over 6.8 million deaths.
Once again, WHO reiterates that “current trends are underestimations of the true number of infections and reinfections” from Sars-CoV-2, “as prevalence surveys show. This is in part due to reduced testing and delays in reporting in many countries. The data presented may be incomplete and therefore should be interpreted with caution”, warns the Geneva agency which, in monitoring changes in epidemiological trends, now makes comparisons on 28-day intervals because “this helps to keep account for reporting delays, smooth out weekly fluctuations in the number of infections, and provide a clearer picture of where the pandemic is accelerating or decelerating.”
At the regional level, in the last 28 days new cases have therefore increased in three of the 6 WHO regions (+89% Eastern Mediterranean, +70% Southeast Asia, +9% Europe), while they have decreased in the other three (-58% Pacific West, -43% Africa, -28% Americas). New deaths fell in 5 regions (-76% Western Pacific, -57% Africa, -38% Americas, -24% Southeast Asia, -15% Europe), while they increased by 68% in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In the last 28 days the highest number of new Covid cases were reported by United States (792.202, -29%), Russian Federation (339.564, +25%), China (320.029, -50%), Japan (291.672, – 73%) and Germany (281,468, -18%) while for deaths reported in the lead are the USA (8,187, -39%), the United Kingdom (2,474, -9%), Japan (1,898, -71%), Brazil ( 1,587, -15%) and China (1,472, -85%).
For the European region, the WHO report indicates over 1.5 million infections and 9,607 deaths in the last 28 days. Twenty-nine countries recorded increases of 20% or more in new cases, with the highest increases reported by Kyrgyzstan (+461%), Armenia (+216%) and Ukraine (+201%). The highest number of new infections was reported by the Russian Federation (339,564, 232.7/100,000, +25%), Germany (281,468, 338.4/100,000, -18%) and Austria (139,925, 1,572.0/100,000; 100 thousand, +33%), while in the lead for new deaths are the United Kingdom (2,474, 3.6/100 thousand, -9%), the Russian Federation (1,035, less than 1/100 thousand, -6%) and Germany (985 , 1.2/100 thousand, -27%).
THE KRAKEN IS ARTURO – Meanwhile, the share of Sars-CoV-2 sequences attributable to Kraken (XBB.1.5), the only variant considered ‘of interest’ (Voi) by the World Health Organization in its new classification system, is growing worldwide. According to the update, the prevalence of Kraken – reported in 85 countries – has risen to 37.7% globally, up from 29% in the period January 30-February 5 (week 5). Regarding the 5 variants under monitoring (Vum), all show a stable or declining trend except for the XBB sub-lineages, which increased from 5.7% in week 5 to 12.5% in week 9.
Omicron’s XBB family also includes XBB.1.16, which experts have renamed ‘Arturo’ on social media – after the red giant which is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, the fourth brightest in the sky – considering it possibly responsible for the new peak of infections recorded by India. Yesterday the pediatrician Vipin M. Vashishtha, former coordinator of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics and member of the WHO Vaccine Safety Net (Vsn) initiative, tweeted the first case of Arcturus intercepted in China and explained that at the moment the XBB.1.16 sublineage was detected in 17 countries, including Canada and Singapore, for a total of 474 isolates.