Geneva, Jun 2 (EFE) .- Global cases of COVID-19 in the world fell by 15% and deaths by 7% last week, with marked decreases in the incidence in the areas most affected by the pandemic except in South America , where the numbers of new infections and deaths are still very high.
According to the weekly epidemiological report of the World Health Organization (WHO), three of the five countries that registered the most absolute cases last week are in that region: Brazil (420,000 new positives), Argentina (219,000) and Colombia (150,000 , 40% more than in the previous seven days).
In absolute terms, 3.5 million new cases and 78,000 deaths were reported from May 24 to 30, making it the fifth consecutive week of decline in infections and the fourth in deaths.
India continues to be the country that registers the most cases, with 1.3 million last week, although it seems to have reached the peak of the current wave, since they were 26% less than in the previous week, while the United States is already exceeded in cases from Brazil and Argentina (153,000 in the period studied, a decrease of 18%).
The situation in South America, which, like North America and Europe, has been one of the areas hardest hit by the pandemic but has a slower vaccination rate in many of its countries, meant that weekly cases in the American continent fell by only 2%. last week, when in Europe they fell by 26%.
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They also fell significantly in South Asia (-24%) and to a lesser extent in the Middle East (-1%), while in Asia Pacific they grew by 6% and in Africa they rose by 22%, although in absolute terms this The region continues to be the one that reports the fewest cases (52,000 between May 24 and 30).
Despite the recent wave of cases in India and other South Asian countries, America continues to be the region that also reported the most deaths in the past week (31,000, a decrease of 1%), while in South Asia it was 29,000 ( 8% less) and in Europe 11,000 (a drop of 17%).
The WHO report also indicates that the British variant (renamed this week as alpha) is already present in most countries on the planet (160), while the South African (beta) has been detected in 113 and the Brazilian and Indian variants (gamma and delta, respectively) are in at least about sixty countries.
As for the global vaccination campaign, there are already close to 2 billion doses administered on the planet, including 659 million in China, 294 million in the United States, 246 million in the European Union and 210 million in India.
