Fresh cases of COVID fell by 24% last week: WHO report

World Health Organization reported that fresh COVID-19 cases across the globe declined 24% last week, marking the second week of falling cases. Global deaths linked to coronavirus also dipped.

Between April 11 and 17, a little over 5.5 million cases of COVID-19 were reported around the world, while deaths fell to 18,215 and registered a fall of 21%, according to reports from Associated Press citing a weekly report from the World Health Organization.

Also Read: India challenges WHO’s ‘one shoe fits all’ approach to COVID death toll

While all regions had reducing numbers, North and South Americas had the smallest decline of 2%. 

In a statement released along with the weekly report, the World Health Organization said that “these trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries are progressively changing their COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected”, Associated Press. reported.

South Korea topped the list of countries that had the highest number of fresh COVID-19 cases, registering more than 972,000 infections. France and Germany took the second and third spot on the list and reported more than 827,000 and 769,000 cases respectively.

Meanwhile, the most deaths were reported in the United States, adding nearly 3,000 deaths to its tally, according to reports from Associated Press citing the figures from World Health Organization. Russia and South Korea were next on the list with 1,784 and 1,671 COVID-19-related fatalities.

Also Read: Every country failed to meet WHO’s air quality standards in 2021: Survey

In all, more than 502 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 6.2 million deaths related to the coronavirus have been reported so far.

Countries have taken a variety of approaches to tackle new COVID-19 infections. While the federal authorities of the United States have been pushing people to get vaccinated against the disease, China has opted for a “zero-tolerance” policy against COVID.