World records 5,236,922 new Covid cases over past seven days, WHO calls it ‘highest-ever’

New Delhi: A record-setting 5,236,922 new COVID-19 cases were registered over the past seven days globally, according to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) data published on Tuesday.

This beats the previous record for new cases in a week of 5.04 million, set the week of January 4, 2021, as cited by CNN.

Cases increased in all WHO regions except for Europe, which saw a 3 per cent decline in cases. The largest increase in cases occurred in the South-East Asia region, where cases count increased 57 per cent over the previous week.

The global body said that an ongoing outbreak in India appeared to be driving the cases numbers in the South-East Asia region. New cases in India accounted for 94 per cent of new cases in the region and nearly 28 per cent of new cases worldwide.

Global deaths from Covid-19 crossed 3 million in the past week. According to the global body, CNN reported that it took nine months for the world to hit its first million Covid-19 deaths and only three months to log its most recent million.