WHO sounds fresh alarm, reports 'sharp' increase in global COVID-19 deaths between July 19-25

Most of the new deaths were reported from the Americas and South-East Asia Regions, the WHO said in its report. The world health body said that with over 69,000 fatalities, the number of COVID-19 deaths reported during the period increased by 21% week-on-week.

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Geneva: Sounding an alarm, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a "sharp" jump was reported in the number of the global COVID-19 deaths in the week between July 19-25.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the world health body said that with over 69,000 fatalities, the number of COVID-19 deaths reported during the period increased by 21 per cent week-on-week.

Most of the new deaths were reported from the Americas and South-East Asia Regions, the WHO said in its report. Meanwhile, the global number of new COVID-19 cases also increased, with 3.8 million new infections confirmed in the above-mentioned week.

The number of new cases rose by 8 per cent compared with the previous week, which was largely attributed to substantial increases in the Americas and the Western Pacific Regions, the WHO report added.

As of Thursday, the overall global COVID-19 caseload has increased to 195,865,047, while the deaths have surged to 4,185,754 and vaccinations soared to 3,960,681,747, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US continues to be the worst COVID-hit country with the world`s highest number of cases and deaths at 34,668,545 and 611,779, respectively.

Despite the vaccination of 50 percent of the population, cases of coronavirus infection have started increasing rapidly in America. This speed is so fast that it has even left India behind in terms of average cases per day.

This is the fourth wave of coronavirus that has griped America these days.