Situation Report of MPOX in Global and ASEAN Region - 16 January 2023

Worldwide, there have been over 658 million cases and over 6 million deaths attributed to COVID-19. • The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued new guidelines on mask-wearing in community settings, COVID-19 treatments, and clinical management. For the isolation period, COVID-19 patients displaying COVID-19 symptoms will have to be isolated for at least 10 days from the date of onset of the symptoms. In addition, COVID-19 patients who tested negative with an antigen-based rapid test can be discharged early from isolation while asymptomatic COVID-19 patients or individuals who have tested positive for the virus but do not experience any symptoms, should be isolated for 5 days. WHO also recommended wearing a mask if an individual has recently been exposed to COVID-19 patients, is suspected to have COVID-19, high risk for severe COVID-19, and is in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space. WHO has also extended its strong recommendation for the use of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir for COVID-19 patients but maintains strong recommendations against the use for treating COVID-19 with sotrovimab and casirivimab-imdevimab.