Global coronavirus deaths rose last week, WHO says, as pandemic shows few signs of slowing

Deaths as a result of the coronavirus rose last week, compared to the week before, WHO data showed Monday, although the number of new cases around the world fell slightly.

In the week ending 13 September, WHO data showed that the number of deaths increased by 8% compared to the previous week, with over 40,600 fatalities reported. However, although new cases of Covid-19 rose by 1.8 million, it marked a 3% decline compared to the previous seven days.

The data comes after WHO reported a record one-day increase in coronavirus cases Sunday, with the total rising by 307,930 in 24 hours. On Monday, that was beaten when a further 308,010 cases were reported from the previous day. The biggest increases in new cases were seen in the U.S., India and Brazil.

Over the week to Sept. 13, however, the Americas (which includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico and a swathe of South American countries) saw the number of new cases decline slightly on the week, the WHO data showed.

“The Americas has consistently registered the greatest number of reported cases for many weeks,” WHO noted, after the region reported 697,780 new infections. “It continues to account for nearly half of the global total of cases even as cases have declined in the reporting week.”

A further 24,626 deaths were reported in the Americas last week, bringing the total in the region to 508,705.

South-East Asia had the second-highest number of new cases, with 687,119, while Europe reported the third-highest number of new cases, with 291,387 new infections. The regions account for 22% and 16% of the global total respectively.

Meanwhile, the region of Africa showed a decline in reported cases this week and was the only region to report a decline in deaths.

To date, there have been 28.9 million reported coronavirus cases in total, according to the WHO. Data from Johns Hopkins University puts the total higher, at 29.3 million.