Infections down on previous week

GENEVA: The worldwide weekly coronavirus infection rate has fallen for the first time since midFebruary, and India and Brazil account for half of all infections, the World Health Organisation says.

A total of 5.69 million cases have been reported globally over the past seven days, compared to 5.73 million in the previous week, reversing a one and ahalfmonth upward trend.

‘‘More cases of Covid19 have been reported globally in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic,’’ WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media conference.

‘‘India and Brazil account for more than half of last week’s cases,’’ he added.

However, coronavirusrelated deaths increased from 88,000 to 93,000 last week, nearing January’s record of about 100,000 weekly fatalities.

This brings the figures for total cases and deaths to more than 152 million and nearly 3.2 million respectively, since the start of the pandemic.

The WHO is continuing to provide medical supplies and mobile hospitals to India, where daily records are being registered and the weekly case count exceeds 400,000.

The WHO has launched a campaign to educate Indians to take care of coronavirus patients who have not been able to gain admittance to hospitals in the overstretched health system, Tedros said. ‘‘What is happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere, unless we all take these public health precautions that WHO has been calling for since the beginning of the pandemic,’’ he added.

The measures include wearing a face mask, avoiding crowded places, washing hands frequently and ventilating homes, he said.

On the other hand, Tedros said that about 50 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been delivered to more than 120 countries through the Covax initiative, which will receive a donation of 500 million Moderna jabs.

Covax and initiatives to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostics still need an additional $US19 billion ($NZ26.5 billion) this year and probably between $US35 billion and $45 billion to keep the inoculation campaigns rolling in 2022, he added.