IANS

The global number of new Covid-19 cases increased sharply by 71 per cent last week compared to the previous week, but the number of new deaths decreased by 10 per cent, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

WHO said in a weekly update on the pandemic situation that there were about 9.5 million new cases and over 41,000 new deaths reported from December 27 of 2021 to January 2 of this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

All regions reported an increase in the incidence of weekly cases, with the America reporting the largest increase (100 per cent), followed by South-East Asia (78 per cent) and Europe (65 per cent).

WHO said that while Africa still reported a weekly increase in the number of new deaths, all the other regions in the world reported a decrease as compared to the previous week.

Brazil Registers 1st Omicron Death

 Brazil recorded the first death from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 Thursday in the city of Aparecida de Goiania of Goias state.

The municipality reported that the victim was a 68-year-old man with high blood pressure suffering from "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," who was admitted to a local hospital, Xinhua news agency reported.

The patient was a contact of a confirmed Omicron case, and had received three vaccine doses.

The local health secretariat reported that the death came 10 days after the declaration of community transmission of the variant in the city.

Brazil accumulated 22.38 million Covid-19 cases and 619,641 deaths, according to Health Ministry data.

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