PACE OF COVID SPREAD EASES IN MOST REGIONS, SAYS W.H.O.

GENEVA: The coronavirus pandemic is still raging worldwide, but fresh World Health Organization (WHO) data indicates its pace is easing in most regions, with the biggest slowdown seen in the hard-hit Americas, but no improvement in Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.

More than 1.7 million new cases and some 39,000 new deaths were recorded last week, the WHO said, representing a 5% fall in new infections globally and a 12% drop in new deaths compared to a week earlier.

Africa’s coronavirus outbreak may have passed its peak, the WHO’S continental chief Matshidiso Moeti said, with the daily numbers of cases being reported overall in the region going down.

Africa has recorded nearly 1.2 million cases and at least 28,000 deaths since the virus arrived on the continent on February 14.