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World sees record 2 million Covid-19 cases in one week, WHO says

22 September 2020 13:58 (UTC +04:00)

The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accelerating worldwide, with new cases soaring last week to a new seven-day high of almost two million, even as new deaths decreased, WHO statistics showed, APA reports citing NST.

In a fresh global update, the World Health Organisation said late on Monday (Tuesday in Malaysia) that during the week ending on Sept 20, 1,998,897 new cases of the novel coronavirus were registered around the world.

That marks a six-per cent increase over a week earlier and "the highest number of reported cases in a single week since the beginning of the epidemic," the UN health agency said.

Since the novel coronavirus first surfaced in China late last year, it has infected more than 31 million people around the globe and has killed nearly 962,000, according to an AFP tally from official sources on Monday.

Nearly all regions of the world saw new cases rise last week, WHO said, with Europe and the Americas seeing new cases swell by 11 and 10 per cent respectively.

Only Africa, which has remained relatively unscathed by the pandemic, dodged the upward trend, reporting a 12-per cent drop in fresh cases from a week earlier.