World sees record weekly Covid-19 cases

The coronavirus pandemic appears to be accelerating worldwide, with new cases soaring last week to a new seven-day high of almost two million, even as new deaths decreased, WHO statistics showed.

In a fresh global update, the World Health Organization said late Monday that during the week ending on September 20, 1,998,897 new cases were registered around the world.

That marks a six-percent increase over a week earlier and "the highest number of reported cases in a single week since the beginning of the epidemic," the UN health agency said.

Since the coronavirus first surfaced in China late last year, it has infected more than 31 million people around the globe and has killed more than 965,000, according to an AFP tally.