"The COVID-19 pandemic is still expanding, but the rise in cases and deaths has slowed globally, except for Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean regions", the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an official statement.
WHO on Monday night informed, the Americas remains the hardest-hit region with half of the newly reported cases and 62% of the 39,240 deaths worldwide in the past week, while, Southeast Asia, the second most affected region, reported 28% surge in new cases and 15% of deaths.
The report said, "India continues to report the majority of cases, but the virus is also spreading rapidly in Nepal". As of Sunday, Indonesia has reported the highest COVID-19 death toll in Southeast Asia with As of Sunday, Indonesia had reported the highest COVID-19 death toll in Southeast Asia. In this connection, the famous Indonesian island of Bali would reportedly be closed to tourists till the end of this year.
According to a statistical report of Reuters, it has been said, "More than 23.65 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 811,895 have died".
"Over 1.7 million new COVID-19 cases and 39,000 new deaths were reported to WHO for the week ending 23 August, a 4% decrease in the number of cases and (a 12% decrease) in the number of deaths compared to the previous week," the Reuters report said.
Meanwhile, in WHO's Western Pacific region, the number of new cases dropped by 5%, driven by less spread in Japan, Australia, Singapore, China, and Vietnam. South Korea reported a 180% jump in cases.
In WHO's eastern Mediterranean region, the number of reported cases rose by 4%, but the number of reported deaths has consistently dropped over the last six weeks, the WHO said. The report also added, "Lebanon, Tunisia, and Jordan reported the highest increase in cases compared to the previous week".
The number of cases and deaths reported across Africa decreased by 8% and 11% respectively in the past week, "primarily due to a decrease in cases reported in Algeria, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa", it said.
"In the European region, the number of cases reported has consistently increased over the last three weeks," it said. "However, only a slight decrease (1%) was reported in the most recent week, and the number of deaths has continued to decrease across the region," the report added.
