Global COVID deaths rose last week after five weeks of decline

SWITZERLAND: After five weeks of declining COVID-19 deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization.

In its weekly assessment of the pandemic issued on Thursday, the UN health agency said there were 8,700 COVID-19 deaths last week, with a 21% jump in the Americas and a 17% increase in the Western Pacific.

WHO said coronavirus cases continued to fall, with about 3.2 million new cases reported last week, extending a decline in COVID-19 infections since the peak in January. Still, there were significant spikes of infection in some regions, with the Middle East and Southeast Asia reporting increases of 58% and 33% respectively.

“Because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is underreported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week.

This week, US officials moved a step closer to authorising coronavirus vaccines for the youngest children, after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for children under five years of age.

And, an outbreak in China’s Beijing centered on a bar is easing after the testing of millions of people and the halting of some leisure businesses, the city said on Thursday. A total of 351 cases have been reported since June 9.

North Korea on Thursday reported the eruption of another infectious disease in addition to its COVID-19 outbreak, saying leader Kim Jong Un has donated his private medicines to those stricken with the new disease. – THE HINDUSTAN TIMES