Situation Report of COVID-19 in the ASEAN Region - 20 October 2023

Global Updates • Worldwide, over 696 million cases and over six million deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. • England: A study by Oxford University suggests that up to 167,000 people may have contracted coronavirus in hospitals in England during the second wave of the pandemic (Hope, 2023). The researchers assessed COVID-19 infections between June 2020 and March 2021, finding that hospitals needed to be better equipped to limit the transmission of future viruses. They found nearly 17,000 infections in hospital patients with definite links to healthcare, and over 19,000 suspected to have a healthcare connection. However, only around 26% of these infections might have been recorded, resulting in hospital-acquired infections ranging from 95,000 to 167,000.