Global Covid-19 cases increased "markedly" over the past week, WHO says

New global Covid-19 cases increased “markedly” in the week of Jan. 3 to 9, with over 15 million new cases being reported, according to the World Health Organization’s weekly epidemiological update published Tuesday. 

This was a 55% increase in cases compared with the week before.

Five WHO regions reported an increase in cases, with the largest increase of 418% coming in the South-East Asia region. This was followed by the Western Pacific Region, 122%, the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 86%, the Region of the Americas, 78%, and the European Region, 31%. 

The African Region was the only one to report a decrease, 11%.

The highest number of new cases was reported in the United States, followed by France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and India. 

Globally, as of Jan. 9, there have been over 304 million confirmed cases. 

While there was an increase in the number of cases, the number of deaths remained similar to the previous week, with over 43,000 new deaths being reported. 

Two regions reported increases in deaths, the African Region, 84%, and the Region of the Americas, 26%. The Western Pacific Region reported a similar number of deaths to the previous week. Decreases were reported in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 11%, the European Region, 10%, and the South-East Asia Region, 6%. 

As of Jan. 9, there have been over 5.4 million deaths reported globally.