Covid-19: Cases rise by a fifth across the world

The number of Covid-19 cases shot up by almost a fifth across the world this week, as the pandemic picked up speed in most regions, with Europe bearing the brunt.

Here is the global state of play based on an AFP database:

The average number of new daily coronavirus cases over the past week increased by 18 per cent to more than 749,000, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

It was the tenth consecutive weekly rise.

The highest percentage flare ups took place in Oceania, where the number of cases more than doubled, and the United States/Canada zone, where they increased by 55 per cent.

The pandemic slowed in Asia and in the Middle East, where cases dropped by 13 and 12 per cent respectively.

The confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

Several countries in Africa, where the highly contagious Omicron variant was first detected, were among those which registered the biggest spikes over the past week.

In Ethiopia the number of cases rocketed seven fold, while in Kenya there was a 483 per cent increase, and cases rose by 370 per cent in Zambia, 155 per cent in Mozambique and 142 per cent in Botswana.

In Zimbabwe new cases halved followed by Belgium with a 47 per cent drop and Austria and Hungary down 36 per cent each.

The US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases with 184,834 per day on average, an increase of 51 per cent.

Next in line came the United Kingdon with 96,010 cases, an increase of 54 percent and France with 61,274 cases, an increase of 21 per cent.

At a global level the number of deaths decreased by two per cent to 6,939 a day.