New Covid cases, deaths falling nearly everywhere

GENEVA: The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported globally continued to fall nearly everywhere in the world in what the World Health Organization described as a "welcome decline" at a media briefing on Wednesday.

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