Where Global COVID-19 cases surpass 600 mln: WHO

Sourced: Xinhua | Updated: 2022-09-02 09:12

White flags honoring the lives lost to COVID-19 are seen on the National Mall in Washington, DC, the United States, on Oct 2, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

GENEVA -- The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 600 million, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

As of Thursday, WHO reported that there have been 600,555,262 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, including 6,472,914 deaths.

The United States has the highest cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths, with more than 93.21 million cases and over 1.03 million deaths. Together, these account for nearly 15 percent of the global total.

The next highest totals have been recorded in India and Brazil, which have confirmed cases exceeding 44 million and 34 million respectively, as well as 527,911 and 683,851 deaths.

In terms of WHO regional offices, Europe and the Americas have so far reported more than 248 million and 175 million confirmed cases, as well as 2,077,355 and 2,817,530 deaths, respectively. The two regions combined account for over 70 percent of the world's total confirmed cases and over 75 percent of deaths.

Though the weekly numbers of new COVID-19 cases and deaths have continued to decline, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that the world had passed "the tragic milestone of one million reported deaths so far this year."

He added: "We cannot say we are learning to live with COVID-19 when one million people have died with COVID-19 this year alone, when we are two-and-a-half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths."

WHO has called on all countries at all income levels to vaccinate those most at risk, and to ensure access to life-saving treatment, while continuing testing and sequencing of the virus.

Omicron remains the dominant variant, with the BA.5 sub-variant representing more than 90 percent of sequences shared with WHO. However, the number of sequences shared per week has fallen by 90 percent since the beginning of this year, and the number of countries sharing sequences has dropped by 75 percent, making it difficult to understand how the virus might be changing.

With colder weather approaching in the northern hemisphere, Tedros has warned that an increase in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 can be expected in the coming months.

The pandemic continues to cast a shadow over the workforce. Long Covid, a combination of symptoms that emerge months or even years after recovering from the virus, is keeping up to 4 million Americans from working, according to a new study.

The Brookings Institution report, released Wednesday, finds that about 16 million working-age Americans (between the ages of 18 and 65) have long Covid today.

People suffering from long Covid face a range of symptoms that can make it challenging to work, including brain fog, anxiety, depression, fatigue and breathing problems.

Brookings estimates that 2 to 4 million people are out of work due to long Covid. The midpoint of that range -- 3 million full-time equivalent workers -- represents a sizable 1.8% of the entire US civilian labor force, the report said.

The findings come as many industries, including education, restaurants and healthcare, struggle with serious labor shortages that are contributing to the worst inflation in four decades.

The economy had 10.7 million unfilled jobs as of June. Although that's down from recent record highs, it's still well above pre-Covid levels of 7 million.

The economic cost from long Covid is significant.

Based on the average US wage of $1,106 per week, Brookings estimates the absence of 3 million people from the workforce because of long Covid translates to about $168 billion a year in lost earnings.

However, that sum does not include the full economic burden of long Covid, Brookings said, a burden that includes the cost of lower productivity of people working while sick, the health care costs and the lost productivity of caretakers.

"If long Covid patients don't begin recovering at greater rates, the economic burden will continue to rise," the Brookings authors wrote.

They find that if the long Covid population grows by just 10% each year, after 10 years the annual cost of lost wages will amount to half a trillion dollars.

"These impacts stand to worsen over time if the US does not take the necessary policy actions," the Brookings authors said.

They call for at least five government actions to ease the economic burden of long Covid: better prevention and treatment; expanded paid sick leave; improved workplace accommodations; wider access to disability insurance; and enhanced data collection.