The coronavirus disease COVID-19 continues to spread at the regional and global levels. As of 13 February 2021, the global cumulative incidence reached 107 854 580 reported cases and 2 373 541 associated deaths with a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 2.2%. Meanwhile, the 22 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) have reported a total of 6 001 710 cases, which represent about 5.6% of the global count, with 139 543 associated deaths (CFR 2.3%). 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 (1 510 873 cases; 25% of the Region’s total), followed by Iraq (641 628; 10.7%) and Pakistan (563 029; 9.4%). Islamic Republic of Iran also reported the highest number of total associated deaths (58 883; CFR 3.9%) followed by Iraq (13 164; CFR 2.1%) and Pakistan (12 307; CFR 2.2%). The highest CFRs were reported by Yemen (28.8%) followed by Syrian Arab Republic (6.6%), while the lowest CFRs were reported by Qatar (0.2%) followed by United Arab Emirates (0.3%) and Bahrain (0.4%).

During epidemiological week 6, the Region reported an increase of 7.2% in cases when compared to the previous week (169 733 cases compared to 158 004 cases). On the other hand, a 9.9% decrease was observed for associated deaths (2468 deaths compared to 2739 deaths).

United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Bahrain reported a relative increase in COVID-19 activity in week 6. The cumulative number of cases increased from 323 402 to 345 605 in United Arab Emirates (7% weekly increase), from 317 836 to 336 992 in Lebanon (6% weekly increase) and from 106 713 to 112 102 in Bahrain (5% weekly increase). Lebanon, Somalia and United Arab Emirates had the largest relative increase in deaths.

In terms of testing, a total of 90 443 153 laboratory PCR tests were conducted since the start of the outbreak across the Region including 3 147 023 tests in week 6, which shows a 1% increase compared to the previous week (3 105 157). The highest number of PCR tests were reported from United Arab Emirates (27.9 million), followed by Saudi Arabia (12.9 million) and Islamic Republic of Iran (9.9 million). The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are performing the highest rates of testing per capita (2822/1000 and 1696/1000, respectively). The average positivity rate for the Region is 6.6%. WHO recommends a positivity rate of around 3–12% as a general benchmark indicating adequate testing, which was achieved in most countries of the Region.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccination has started in ten countries of the Region. The total number of doses administered so far include 5 086 835 in United Arab Emirates, 1 707 091 in Morocco, 446 940 in Saudi Arabia, 248 775 in Bahrain, 50 000 in Qatar, 48 819 in Oman, 38 545 in Jordan, 35 000 in Kuwait, 27 228 in Pakistan and 1315 in Egypt.

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. Activities this week included:

a field mission to Somalia that is currently underway to build the capacity of the ministries of health for effective management of coronary care units (CCUs) in the context of COVID-19;

the training of 80 infection prevention and control (IPC) specialist from 15 universities in Egypt on the tools of the case-control study to explore health care worker infections with COVID-19; and

the training of 25 hospital managers from Islamabad on IPC leadership and the role of senior management, which was implemented in collaboration with WHO collaborating centre in Saudi Arabia.

For more data from the Region, please visit the COVID-19 dashboard.

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