ReliefWeb

All 56 countries and territories in the Region of the Americas have reported COVID-19 cases and deaths. Since the 9 November 2020 PAHO/WHO Epidemiological Update on COVID-19 and as of 9 December 2020, 592,561 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 54,832 deaths, have been reported in the Region of the Americas, representing a 14.3% increase in cases and a 8.5% increase in deaths.

Context

On 31 December 2019, the People’s Republic of China notified a cluster of pneumonia cases with unknown etiology, later identified on 9 January 2020 as a novel coronavirus by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). On 11 February 2020, WHO named the disease “coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),” and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the virus “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).” On 11 March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO Director-General, and on 31 July 2020, the WHO Director-General accepted the advice of the Emergency Committee, declaring that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to constitute a PHEIC, and issuing the temporary recommendations to States Parties under the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005). On 9 July 2020, the WHO Director-General announced the launch of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR), which will independently and comprehensively assess the lessons learned from the international health response to COVID-19.

Global Situation Summary

Since the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 until 10 December 2020, a cumulative total of 68,165,877 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported globally, including 1,557,385 deaths, representing a total of 18,587,287 additional confirmed cases and 311,668 additional deaths, since the last PAHO/WHO Epidemiological Update on COVID-19 published on 9 November 2020.

As of 10 December 2020, of the global total, WHO Region of the Americas and the WHO European Region, represent 73% of the total confirmed cases and 79% of the total deaths. The Region of the Americas represents 43% (29,139,394) of the total confirmed cases and 49% (760,908) of the total deaths and the European Region represents 31% (20,869,839) of the total cases and 30% (462,615) of the total deaths.

Since the 9 November 2020 PAHO/WHO Epidemiological Update on COVID-19, the European Region has the highest relative increase in cases and deaths, with 7,734,291 additional cases (37%) including 151,279 deaths (33%) (Figure 1).