GENEVA – Almost 3.6 million people contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) worldwide in the past week, over 51,000 of them died, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its Weekly Epidemiological Report on Wednesday.
"Globally, the numbers of weekly Covid-19 cases and deaths have increased for more than a month. During the week of 15-21 November 2021, nearly 3.6 million confirmed new cases and over 51,000 deaths were reported, reflecting a 6-percent increase for cases and deaths as compared to the previous week," the WHO said.
Europe accounts for almost 67 percent of all new cases, posting an increase of 11 percent as compared to the previous seven-day period.
A decline in Covid-19 incidence was reported in Southeast Asia (down 11 percent), Eastern Mediterranean (down 9 percent), and Africa (down 4 percent).
Mortality increased in the West Pacific (up 29 percent), America (up 19 percent) and Europe (up 3 percent).
At the same time, the number of Covid-related fatalities declined in Africa (down 30 percent), Southeast Asia (down 19 percent) and Eastern Mediterranean (down 4 percent).
Overall, a total of 3,597,398 coronavirus cases and 53,373 Covid-related deaths were registered worldwide between November 15 and 21.
The biggest numbers of new cases were reported by the United States (558,538), Germany (333,473), the United Kingdom (281,063), Russia (260,484), and Turkey (163,835).
In the past 60 days, the Delta variant remained the dominant strain worldwide, found in 99.8 percent of all coronavirus-positive samples taken worldwide, the WHO said.
As of November 23, a total of 257,469,528 coronavirus cases and 5,158,211 deaths have been registered worldwide.
The number of those infected grew by 436,031 in the past 24 hours, while fatalities increased by 6,433. (TASS)
