IN CONTINUATION OF TREND, GLOBAL NUMBER OF NEW COVID CASES FELL LAST WEEK: W.H.O

GENEVA/MOSCOW: The World Health Organization (WHO) says the number of newly reported coronavirus cases fell in the last week, continuing a declining global trend that first began in August.

In its latest assessment of the pandemic, the United Nations health agency reported on Tuesday that there were 3.1 million new Covid-19 cases, a 9% fall, and about 54,000 deaths in the last week, roughly similar to the week before.

WHO said there were decline in case numbers in all world regions except for Europe, where the number was about the same as the previous week.

Covid-19 cases fell by about 43% in Africa, by about 20% in both the Middle East and Southeast Asia and 12% in the Americas and the Western Pacific. The largest decline in deaths was seen in Africa, where numbers decreased by about a quarter.

WHO also said nearly a third of African countries managed to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations by September end.

Record deaths in Russia

Russia on Wednesday reported more than 900 daily coronavirus deaths for the first time, as the country struggles with stubbornly high infection rates driven by the Delta variant and low vaccination take-up.

A government tally recorded 929 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, Russia’s highest daily virus death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The new figures bring Russia’s total deaths from coronavirus to 212,625 - the highest toll in Europe. The world’s fifth worsthit country with more than 7.5 million infections, Russia has seen cases climb since August as vaccinations stalled.