Situation Report of MPOX in Global and ASEAN Region - 18 January 2023

Global Update

• Worldwide, there have been over 658 million cases and over 6 million deaths attributed to COVID-19.

• US CDC: According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) XBB omicron subvariants are now causing over 80% of COVID-19 infections in New England. The XBB.1.5 variant, which accounted for only about 10% of COVID cases in the region as recently as last month, now makes up 81.7% of all cases, with another 1.3% attributed to XBB. The BQ.1.1 subvariant accounts for 9% of COVID cases in New England, 5.2% for BQ.1, and 1.2% for BA.5.

• Canada: In Ontario, Canada, cases of a new, highly-transmissible Omicron subvariant have increased. According to the latest COVID-19 genomic surveillance report from Public Health Ontario released on January 17 (Tuesday), the XBB.1.5 subvariant is expected to account for 22.2% of COVID-19 cases by the end of this week—a significant jump from weeks ago when only 0.7% of COVID-19 cases were that of the XBB.1.5 subvariant. As of last week, the Omicron BQ.1.1 subvariant was still the dominant variant in Ontario.