(CNN) – The number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide has fallen for the fourth straight week, according to data from the World Health Organization, offering a ray of hope that the world will turn a corner in its efforts to contain the pandemic.
The number of reported COVID-19 deaths worldwide fell for the second straight week, with 88,000 deaths reported last week, down 10% from the week before, according to the WHO.
More than 3.1 million new cases of covid-19 were reported worldwide last week, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update. That was a drop of 17% from the previous week and the lowest number of cases worldwide since the week of October 26, 2020.
“While there are still many countries with a growing number of cases, this is encouraging worldwide,” said the WHO weekly update.
The countries that reported the most cases of covid-19 in the past week
The United States registered the highest number of new cases of Covid-19, with 871,365. However, according to WHO data, this figure represented a 19% decrease in cases compared to the previous week.
Brazil, France, Russia and the United Kingdom were also among the countries reporting the highest number of new infections worldwide, the WHO noted, although they all saw a drop from last week’s numbers.
Of all regions, Africa saw the largest drop in the number of cases, at 22%, compared to the WHO’s previous weekly update, while the Eastern Mediterranean had the least at 2%.
In total, new cases in Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for more than half of all new cases worldwide, with more than 1.5 million new infections and more than 45,000 more deaths.
According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, there have been nearly 107 million cases of covid-19 worldwide and more than 2.3 million deaths from the virus since the start of the pandemic.
The weekly infection rate fell by almost a third on February 7, from the peak in early January.
Many countries are waiting for the vaccine against covid-19
Many countries hope that vaccines against the coronavirus will provide a way out of the crisis.
But while some countries have already administered millions of doses, about 130 countries, home to about 2.5 billion people, still need to administer a single dose, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a session Friday.
This week’s initial data, showing that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine may provide only “minimal protection” against mild to moderate disease caused by the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, has dampened optimism in some quarters .
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and easier to transport and store than some of the other vaccines approved for use to date, and as such has been identified as playing a key role in fighting the pandemic in countries with a low or middle income.
Last Wednesday, the WHO published its interim recommendations for the use of the Oxford / AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine in people over 18 years old. The WHO recommends giving the vaccine eight to 12 weeks apart.