World sees 22pc drop in Covid cases in a week

The Covid-19 pandemic continued its retreat this week, with fewer deaths and the number of new cases decreasing in most regions of the world.

After a surge which lasted for three-and-a-half months, the average number of global daily cases dropped for a third week in a row, falling back by 22 percent to 1.97 million, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

The situation improved in most regions of the world over the past seven days. The number of daily cases dropped by 43 percent in the United States/Canada zone, by 35 percent in the Middle East, by 23 percent in Europe and the Latin America/Caribbean area and by 22 percent in Africa.

The situation remained almost stable in Asia, with a one percent fall in cases. They increased by the same amount in Oceania.

South East Asia and Oceania saw the biggest spike in the number of new cases this week.

The number of Covid-linked deaths declined by seven percent globally, with an average of 10,355 per day, after an increase for five weeks in a row.

Even though the highly contagious Omicron variant led at its peak to four times more daily infections than previous waves, daily deaths remain far lower than their record high in January 2021 when they skirted 15,000.

The US again mourned the most deaths this week with an average of 2,300 per day.