Weekly numbers of new Covid-19 cases have continued to rise in most regions of the world. In the week of 2 to 8 December more than 4 million new cases were detected worldwide, a 4.2% increase on the previous week. The biggest jump (81%) in weekly numbers was in Africa, particularly in southern Africa where the number of cases is soaring with the emergence of the Omicron variant. The continent was followed by North America (16%) and Europe (3%). Infection numbers in Asia fell by 6% and stabilised in South America (chart 1). Meanwhile, 320 million booster doses were administered around the world, half of them in high-income countries. To date, 55.2% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine (chart 2).
As far as mobility is concerned, the trend in visits to retail and recreational facilities continued to fall in Germany, Belgium and Italy. In France and Spain, the increase observed over the last two weeks fits within an upward trend that has extended over several weeks. The US and UK stood out for their relative stability; the recent fall in the US is related to the Thanksgiving holidays but the latest data show a rebound. In Japan, the latest downturn follows a positive trend over the past few weeks (chart 3, blue line).
Lastly, the OECD Weekly Tracker of GDP growth* continues to trend upwards in Spain, the United States, the UK and Japan. In France, the most recent data seem to reflect a slight downward inflection, while in Germany, Italy and Belgium, a rather sharp downward trend is taking shape (chart 3, black line). The OECD Tracker is based on Google Trends resulting from queries on consumption, the labour market, housing, industrial activity as well as uncertainty. The OECD calculates the tracker over a 2-year period (y/2y) to avoid the base effect of a comparison with 2020 data.
