Europe the only region with rise in Covid-19 last week, WHO says
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The World Health Organization said there was a 7 per cent rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week, the only region in the world where cases increased, and said uneven vaccine uptake posed a threat to the continent.
In its weekly assessment of the pandemic, the UN health agency said there were about 2.7 million new Covid-19 cases and more than 46,000 deaths last week worldwide, similar to the numbers reported the previous week.
WHO said the two regions with the highest rates of Covid-19 incidence were Europe and the Americas. Globally, the US reported the biggest number of new cases, more than 580,000, which still represented a 11 per cent decline.
Britain, Russia and Turkey accounted for the most cases in Europe.
The biggest drop in Covid-19 cases were seen in Africa and the Western Pacific, where infections fell by about 18 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. The number of deaths in Africa also declined by about a quarter, despite the dire shortage of vaccines on the continent.
But for the third consecutive week, coronavirus cases have jumped in Europe, with about 1.3 million new cases. More than half of countries in the region reported a rise in their Covid-19 numbers, WHO said. Britain and Russia each reported about a 15 per cent increase in new cases.
