WHO reports COVID cases down everywhere but Africa, Americas

The WHO’s pandemic dashboard reports 675,952 new cases worldwide over the last 24 hours.

In the U.S., the WHO said there have been more than 156,200 new daily cases.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reports 163,335 new cases and 949 new deaths, as omicron sub-variants continue to spread across the nation.

In its weekly report, the United Nations (U.N.) health agency said about 3.5 million new cases and more than 25,000 deaths were reported globally, which respectively represent decreases of 12% and 25%.

Comparatively, infections rose in the Americas by 14% and Africa by 12%.

Also, some of the biggest increases in cases were seen in China, with a 145% spike in the last week.

Elsewhere in Asia, North Korea announced its first outbreak and imposed a nationwide lockdown.

On Thursday, President Biden called for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19.

He pointed out that America is approaching the “tragic milestone” of 1 million coronavirus-related deaths and ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff through Monday.

“This pandemic isn’t over,” the president told the second global pandemic summit. “Today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the United States, 1 million COVID deaths – 1 million empty chairs around the family dinner table.”

Europe marked 2 million deaths on the continent and the coronavirus has killed at least 6.2 million people globally since 2019.

The WHO said 14.9 million excess deaths were associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

“We’re going to continue to fight for more funding here,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “But, we will continue to press other countries to do more to help the world make progress as well.”

With no money left for vaccinations, experts are predicting that a fall surge could reverse progress made in the U.S.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.