Geneva (SunstarTV Bureau): For the fourth consecutive week, the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases has continued to increase globally, informed the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to Xinhua news agency latest update issued on Wednesday, in the week ending March 21, near about 3.3 million new Covid-19 cases were reported globally.
Four regions have marked a continued growth in Covid-19 cases, namely South-East Asia, Western Pacific, Europe and Eastern Mediterranean regions up by 49 percent, 29 percent, 13 percent, 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Europe and the Americas still accounted for close to 80 per cent of all cases and deaths, it said.
The increase reported by the WHO followed a trend that saw, in early March, the end of a decrease in the number of infections worldwide, a shift that was deemed by the world body “disappointing but not surprising”.
Furthermore WHO said that, while the number of new Covid-19 deaths was falling in the last few weeks, it plateaued last week, indicating a possible rise in fatalities globally.
According to the report, only the Western Pacific region saw a decrease in new reported deaths during the week.
In its latest update on Thursday morning, the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 124,688,146 and 2,742,974, respectively.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 30,009,386 and 545,237, respectively, according to the CSSE. Brazil follows in the second place with 12,220,011 cases and 300,685 fatalities.
