WHO: Decline in new COVID-19 cases could be tied to drop in testing

A World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist said this week that the drop in new COVID-19 cases may in part be a result of changing testing rates and advised people to be cautious before celebrating downward trends.

“If you look at the overall epidemic curve, there are fewer cases that were reported in the last week than were in the previous week, but we need to look at this very carefully,” Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO’s COVID-19 response team, said during a live Q&A on Wednesday.

“Because testing rates have changed around the world, and although 16 million cases were reported to WHO, we know that that is an underestimate and I think we need to be careful about interpreting too much this downward trend.”

The WHO official noted than many countries have dropped testing requirements, calling this a concerning development due to the “intense level” of viral circulation that is still occurring.

Kerkhove said that while recent trends are “certainly” going in the right direction, there are still many cases that are going unreported. Apart from new coronavirus cases, Kerkhove said the continuing increase in COVID-19-related deaths is now a larger concern while noting that death rates are varying in different part of the world.

“It’s the sixth week in a row that we’re seeing increasing reports of deaths from COVID-19. In the last week alone almost 75,000 people died, reported to us. And we know that that is an underestimate,” she said. “At this point in the pandemic, when we have tools that can save people’s lives, this is far, far too many.”