The coronavirus disease COVID-19 continues to spread at the regional and global levels. As of 09 July 2022, the global cumulative incidence reached 551 892 874 reported cases and 6 358 005 associated deaths at a case-fatality ratio (CFR) of 1.15%. Meanwhile, the 22 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) have reported a total of 22 195 674 cases, representing about 4% of the global count, with 343 876 associated deaths (CFR 1.55%). Most countries in the Region are in the community transmission phase.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, the country that has reported the highest number of total cases in the Region is Islamic Republic of Iran (7 247 601; 32.65% of the Region’s total), followed by Iraq (2 383 094; 10.74%) and Jordan (1 702 661; 7.67%). Islamic Republic of Iran also reported the highest number of total COVID-19-associated deaths (141 429; CFR 1.95%) followed by Pakistan (30 421; CFR 1.97%) and Tunisia (28 823; CFR 2.65%). The highest CFRs were reported by Yemen (18.16%) followed by Sudan (7.89%) and Syria (5.63%), while the lowest CFRs were reported by United Arab Emirates (0.24%), Bahrain (0.23) and Qatar (0.17%) respectively.
During epidemiological week 27, the Region reported an increase in cases by 21% when compared to the previous week (130 490 cases compared to 108 022 cases). An increase by 45.0% was also observed for associated deaths (217 deaths in the current week compared to 150 deaths in the previous week).
The weekly number of cases has increased in most of the countries of the region as compared to the last week. This week the number of COVID-19-associated deaths increased in 8 out of 22 countries of the Region as compared to the previous week.*
In terms of testing, a total of 407 419 406 laboratory tests were conducted since the start of the outbreak across the Region including 2 489 871 tests in week 27, which shows an 8% increase compared to the previous week when 2 306 948 tests were conducted. The highest number of PCR tests were reported from United Arab Emirates (172 390 641), followed by Islamic Republic of Iran (52 719 994) and Saudi Arabia (43 554 043). The average positivity rate for the Region is 5.45%. WHO recommends a positivity rate of around 3% to 12% as a general benchmark indicating adequate testing, which was achieved in most countries of the Region.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccination continues across the Region. The total number of doses administered so far in the 22 countries is 781 738 473. Pakistan has administered the highest number of doses 287 170 265, followed by Islamic Republic of Iran at 150 078 501 and Egypt at 92 261 780. On the other hand, Somalia (3 158 975), Yemen (874 886) and Djibouti (226 678) administrated the lowest number of COVID-19 doses in the Region.**
Supporting countries in the Region
The regional incident management support team continues to coordinate the response and provide technical support to countries and partners in the Region in the areas of coordination and partnership, surveillance, laboratory capacity, clinical management, infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement, points of entry according to the International Health Regulations (2005), research, health systems, and essential health services among others.
For more data from the Region, please visit the COVID-19 dashboard.
*Reporting on weekly relative difference instead of cumulative difference to better reflect the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic as we witness a decline in reported cases. This decline could be partially due to the change in the frequency and quality of data being shared by some countries as they moved to reporting through weekly aggregated data.
**The data on vaccination is obtained from a number of sources including media reports and country websites for ministries of health.
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