Global COVID-19 cases have declined for the third week in a row, with deaths easing off to levels seen early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest assessments of the pandemic.

At a briefing today, however, WHO officials urged countries not to drop their guard, as a few locations report spikes and some—like the United States—see early signs of new rises.

Citing concerns about a case uptick, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today extended the mask order for public transit by 2 weeks.

Global cases, deaths both drop

In its latest weekly update on the pandemic, the WHO said cases dropped 24% last week from the week before, with all regions reporting declining cases.

Of about 7 million cases reported last week, the five countries logging the most included South Korea, Germany, France, Vietnam, and Italy. Deaths were down 18%, with the most reported from the United States.

Of virus samples sequenced over the past 30 days, 99.2% were the Omicron variant. Among Omicron subvariants, the WHO said it is monitoring BA.4 and BA.5, which have mutations that might contribute to immune escape. It said both have S-gene dropout, which helps distinguish them from the more dominant BA.2 and is useful for tracking the spread. The two subvariants have been detected in a few countries, and more work is under way to assess them.

At today's WHO briefing, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said some countries are still seeing serious spikes in cases, which are putting pressure on hospitals. And he warned that the capacity to track COVID-19 trends is compromised as countries reduce testing for the virus.

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