The number of global new cases reported continues to fall for the sixth consecutive week, with 2.4 million new cases last week, an 11% decline compared to the previous week, a WHO media release said on Wednesday.
The number of new deaths also continued to fall for the past three weeks, with nearly 66,000 new deaths reported last week, a 20% decline as compared to the previous week. A total of four out of six WHO regions reported declines in new cases, with only South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean regions showing a small 2% and 7% increase, respectively. The Americas continue to see the greatest drops in absolute numbers of cases. Meanwhile, the number of new deaths declined in all regions apart from the Western Pacific (6% increase), the release said.
In the past week, the five countries reporting the highest number of new cases continue to be the United States of America (480 467 new cases, a 29% decrease), Brazil (316 221 new cases, a 1% decrease), France (131 179 new cases, a 3% increase), the Russian Federation (92 843 new cases, an 11% decrease), and India (86 711 new cases, a 10% increase).