The number of new Covid-19 cases reported globally “seems to be plateauing” after increasing for nearly two months, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.
WHO reported more than 4.5 million new Covid-19 cases and 68,000 new deaths worldwide last week — only a slight increase from the more than 4.4 million cases and 66,000 deaths reported the prior week.
The cumulative global caseload now stands at more than 211 million, with the total death toll surpassing 4.4 million, according to WHO’s weekly epidemiological update.
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The number of new global cases now appears to be stable, after increasing since mid-June, WHO noted in the report.
The world had earlier seen a plateauing in global cases in May, according to WHO, but outbreaks partly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant have sent cases surging in many countries in the past two months.
The United States reported the highest number of new cases last week — at 1.02 million, a 15% increase from the previous week — followed by Iran, India, the United Kingdom and Brazil.
The Western Pacific and the Americas saw the largest increase in cases last week — at 20% and 8% respectively. Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean reported a decline in infections, while the other regions saw stagnant cases, according to WHO.
