GENEVA, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, decreased for the sixth week in a row, but the more contagious variants of the virus are spreading fast, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in its weekly pandemic report.
The number of new cases dropped by 11 percent since last week, and North America, South America, Europe, Africa and the Western Pacific region all reported decreases.
The Americas have seen the largest weekly decline with 19 percent, while the U.S. still has the highest number of weekly cases at 480,467.
The number of deaths is also trending downward, WHO said, dropping by 20 percent worldwide since last week.
According to the WHO report, since the beginning of the pandemic, 110 million infections and 2.5 million deaths have been recorded globally. These figures are expected to increase further as new, more contagious variants of the virus have been detected worldwide.
The WHO report said, 101 countries already confirmed the presence of the variant, that was first found in the United Kingdom (UK), while the strain first detected in South Africa has been identified in 51 countries.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, warned that, although the world saw a continuous decrease in new cases, “the fire is not out…If we stop fighting (the virus) on any front, it will come back.”
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in countries with the already-authorised virus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide — 73 of them in clinical trials — in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by WHO on Feb 23.– NNN-AGENCIES
