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New Covid-19 cases continue to rise globally, increasing by 10% in the past week to over 3 million new reported cases, the World Health Organisation reported in its weekly update. It is noted that the number of new cases peaked in early January 2021 when there were just under 5 million cases reported in one week.

New cases then declined to just under 2.5 million cases by the week commencing 15 February. However, for the past three weeks new cases have increased. This week, the Americas and Europe continue to account for over 80% of new cases and new deaths, with rises in new cases seen in all regions apart from Africa, where incidence rates remained similar to the previous week. New deaths on the other hand continue to decline and are now under 60,000, since peaking in the week commencing 18 January (when there were over 95 000 new deaths in the week). The last time when there were fewer than 60,000 new weekly deaths was four months ago, in the week commencing 9 November.