Risk assessment of global COVID-19 pandemic in April 2022

  Objective   To assess the global epidemic of Coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19） in April 2022 and the risk of importation.

  Methods   According to the daily COVID-19 data publicly released by Johns Hopkins University, combined with the policy stringency index published by the University of Oxford, an epidemiological description method was used to provide a comprehensive and timely assessment of the global epidemic risk through a general overview, a comprehensive assessment of the epidemic trends in WHO regions and key countries, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the epidemic and prevention and control policies in 14 neighbouring countries. The assessment results for each country are expressed as “countries of global concern”, “countries of the general concern in each WHO sub-region” and “neighbouring countries of special concern”.

  Results  Compared with March 2022, the global monthly new confirmed cases dropped by 45.55%, and the global monthly new deaths dropped by 48.28%. Compared with March, except for the 18.4% increase in newly confirmed cases in the Americas (North) region, the new confirmed cases in April all declined, with a decline ranging from 35.3% to 65.6%, with the largest decline in the Eastern Mediterranean region; The number of new deaths decreased in all regions, ranging from 26.6% to 76.8%, with the largest decline in the Americas region (South).

  Conclusion   The global daily newly confirmed cases and deaths showed an overall downward trend in April, but the epidemic situation in the Americas (North) region is still aggravating, and the number of newly confirmed cases and deaths is still increasing, which should be paid special attention to, timely communicate and adjusted measures.