WHO reports surge in coronavirus deaths last week

GENEVA – Over 93,000 people died from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the past week, which is a record high figure since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its weekly bulletin on Wednesday.

The Covid-19 case tally worldwide also grew by over 4.7 million in the past week, it said.

According to the WHO, 93,882 coronavirus fatalities were reported across the globe between Jan. 11 and Jan. 17 (a 9-percent growth as compared to the week earlier). A total of 4,725,025 people got infected, which is 6 percent fewer than during the period of January 6-10.

Last week, a growth in fatalities was reported in all six regions. As for the number of infections, it grew in Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific, declining in America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

In North and South America, more than 2.46 million people contracted coronavirus (a 2 percent decline) and over 43,000 people died (15 percent growth). In Europe, more than 1.6 million coronavirus cases (15 percent decrease) and over 37,000 deaths (2 percent growth) were recorded.

In Southeast Asia, medics reported more than 200,000 new infections, which is a slightly lower figure than during the previous week (a decrease of 1 percent), and the number of deaths grew by more than 3,400 (an increase of 4 percent).

More than 1.5 million new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the past week in the United States, which is followed by Brazil (over 379,000 new cases), the United Kingdom (over 339,000), Russia (over 166,000), France (over 125,000), Germany (over 124,000), Colombia (over 114,000), South Africa (over 111,000), Italy (over 110,000) and India (over 107,000).

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the WHO about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named Covid-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. (Anadolu)