Coronavirus tally: Global case tally down 17% in latest week and new variants are still no more lethal than earlier ones, says WHO

The global tally of COVID cases fell 17% in the week through Oct. 30 from the previous week, while the death toll fell 5%, the World Health Organization said in its weekly update on the virus. The omicron variant BA.5 remained dominant globally, accounting for 74.9% of cases sent to a central database. The WHO reiterated that newer sublineages of omicron, including BQ.1 and XBB, still appear no less lethal than earlier ones and do not warrant the designation of 'variant of concern.' In the U.S., known cases of COVID remain at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 39,090 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 3% versus two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 2% at 27,161, while the daily average for deaths is down 6% to 345. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 631.3 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.59 million with the U.S. leading the world with 97.6 million cases and 1,071,578 deaths.

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