Paris: Across most of the world the pandemic has been in decline this week. The number of new daily cases around the world decreased by eight per cent this week to 589,900.
The pandemic had gained ground since mid-June fanned by the highly contagious Delta variant which has become predominant in most countries. But for two weeks now it has been in decline.
However, the confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.
The situation has improved in most regions worldwide, with a 21 per cent decline in daily cases in Africa and a drop of 15 per cent in the Middle East.
It is down nine per cent in both Asia and the United States/Canada region, and fell eight per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The pandemic is stabilising in Europe while Oceania saw a 17 per cent increase, though the virus is circulating relatively little in this region.
The US continued to record the most new infections by far, with 151,400 a day, a decrease of nine per cent. India followed with 40,300, a decrease of six per cent and the United Kingdom 38,500, a 15 per cent increase.
On a per capita basis the country that recorded the most new cases this week was Mongolia with 795 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Israel (621) and Montenegro (576).
The US also recorded the most daily deaths with 1,562, ahead of Russia (795) and Mexico (665). At a global level the number of daily deaths dropped for the second week running, to 9,047 per day, a six per cent decrease.
South Korea led the vaccination race this week among countries with more than one million inhabitants, jabbing 1.43 per cent of its population every day. It was followed by Cuba and New Zealand (both 1.42 per cent), Sri Lanka (1.32 per cent), Panama (1.13 per cent) and Australia (1.03 per cent). — AFP
