WHO: New COVID cases, deaths keep falling nearly everywhere

The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported globally continued to fall nearly everywhere in the world in what the World Health Organization describes as a “welcome decline.”

The UN health agency says there were 4.5 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week, a 16% drop from the previous week. Deaths were also down by 13%, with about 13,500 fatalities. WHO says COVID-19 infections dropped everywhere in the world while deaths decreased everywhere except for Southeast Asia, where they climbed by 15% and in the Western Pacific, where they rose by 3%.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns that with the coming onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the possible emergence of a more dangerous new COVID-19 variant, experts expect to see a spike in hospitalizations and deaths. Tedros says vaccination rates, even in rich countries, were still too low, noting that 30% of health workers and 20% of older people remain unimmunized.

“These vaccination gaps pose a risk to all of us,” he says. “Please get vaccinated if you are not and a booster if it’s recommended that you have one.”