WHO: Record weekly jump in Covid-19 cases but fewer deaths

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Thursday (Friday in Manila) that a record 9.5 million Covid-19 cases were tallied over the last week as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus swept the planet, a 71 percent increase from the previous seven-day period that the UN health agency likened to a "tsunami." However, the number of weekly recorded deaths declined.

"Last week, the highest number of Covid-19 cases was reported so far in the pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He said the WHO was certain that was an underestimate because of a backlog in testing around the year-end holidays.