COVID-19 cases increased by 11 percent last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nearly 5 million global infections were reported from December 20 to 26. The biggest increase was seen in the Americas, with cases rising by 39 percent. Around 1.48 million cases were recorded in the region with an infection rate of 144.4 new cases per 100,000 residents.
The United States, in particular, reported more than 1.18 million cases during the time period. Canada had the second-highest amount of cases with 78,847, while Argentina came in third place with 65,966 new infections.
Despite the Americas seeing a significant increase in cases, it is Europe that currently stands as the region with the most. Around 2.84 million cases were reported, a 3 percent increase from the previous week's total. The region also has an infection rate of 304.6 new cases per 100,000 residents, the highest rate of any region throughout the world.
The WHO recently warned that Europe could continue to face surging infections.
"A rapid growth of Omicron," explained WHO's Europe COVID incident manager Catherine Smallwood, per The Guardian, "even if combined with a slightly milder disease, will still result in large numbers of hospitalizations, particularly amongst unvaccinated groups, and cause widespread disruption to health systems and other critical services."
WHO also published new updates on the current status of the Omicron coronavirus variant in their report.
"The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high. Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of 2-3 days and rapid increases in the incidence of cases is seen in a number of countries," it reported.
However, there is further evidence that, despite its high infection rate, Omicron might not be as severe as other forms of COVID-19.
"Early data from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark suggests there is a reduced risk of hospitalization for the Omicron compared to the Delta variant," wrote scientists, "however, further data are needed to understand the clinical markers of severity including the use of oxygen, mechanical ventilation and death, and how severity may be impacted by vaccination and/or prior SARSCoV-2 infection."
The next report published by WHO will cover "only the global and regional epidemiology."
The gain in global cases followed a gradual increase since October.
Reported new cases in Africa were up 7 percent to nearly 275,000.
WHO said that the number of newly reported deaths worldwide last week was down 4 percent to 44,680.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
