COVID-19 cases drop for seventh week, but deaths fall less slowly: WHO

(United Nations News) The number of new COVID-19 cases reported to the UN health agency has declined for seven weeks in a row, in what the top official there called on Monday “the longest sequence of weekly declines during the pandemic so far”.

However, while weekly cases are at their lowest since February, “deaths are not falling as quickly”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), told journalists in Geneva. 

“The number of deaths reported last week was similar to the previous week, and the global decline masks a worrying increase in cases and deaths in many countries”, he explained. 

With the least access to vaccines, diagnostics and oxygen supplies for the critically ill, a steep increase in Africa is “especially concerning”, said the WHO chief. 

A recent Lancet medical journal study showed that despite having fewer reported cases than most other regions, the continent has the highest mortality rate among critically ill COVID-19 patients. 

And evidence suggests new variants have substantially increased transmission globally. 

Read more at: United Nations News

Source: CARICOM TODAY