'Covid continues to decline, except in Americas, Africa'

Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that the number of newly reported coronavirus cases and deaths globally continued to fall in the last week, continuing a decline that first began in March. In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN health agency said there were about 3.8 million new infections and more than 15,000 deaths last week, a 17% and 3% drop on the week respectively. But those figures are believed to be a significant underestimate of Covid-19's true toll as increasing numbers of countries abandon widespread testing and surveillance. Still, the WHO noted that cases rose by about a third in Africa and 13% in the Americas.