Geneva, The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) fell for a third consecutive week, a trend likely helped by the dismantling of testing and surveillance programs.
In its latest weekly report on the pandemic, issued late Tuesday, the UN health agency said the more than 7 million new cases reported represented a 24% decline from a week earlier. The weekly worldwide number of COVID-19 deaths, was down 18%, at over 22,000.
WHO said the decreases “should be interpreted with caution” as numerous countries where the virus is starting to subside have changed their testing strategies, meaning far fewer cases are being identified.
New cases and deaths are falling in every region of the world, including the Western Pacific, where a surge of infections has triggered severe lockdown measures in China.
WHO said it was monitoring several mutants of the virus descended from the omicron variant, including some recombined forms of existing omicron sub-variants.
Source: Oman News Agency
