Covid-19: Pandemic deaths rise by 12% as cases soar

The number of Covid-19 cases continued to soar around the world this week, with the death rate taking off again and rising 12 per cent.

Here is the global state of play from an AFP database:

The average number of new daily coronavirus cases climbed to a record 2.78 million, a 44-per cent increase compared to the previous week, according to an AFP count to Thursday.

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

With the Omicron variant now present in most countries, flare-ups took place in every region of the world.

The number of cases soared by 210 per cent in Asia, 142 per cent in the Middle East, 126 per cent in the Latin America-Caribbean region and 59 per cent in Oceania.

In the United States and Canada cases rose 31 per cent and they were up a quarter in Europe.

Africa stood alone in seeing an improvement, with an 11-per cent drop.

The Philippines saw the biggest increase of 327 per cent in new cases.

It was followed by India with 321 per cent, Kosovo with 312 per cent, Brazil with 290 per cent and Peru with 284 per cent.

Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, registered the biggest drop in new cases for the second week in a row, with a fall of 45 per cent.

Zambia came next with 30 per cent fewer cases, South Africa (27 per cent less), Namibia (minus 26 per cent) and the United Kingdom (minus 25 per cent).

The four southern African nations were among the first countries hit by the Omicron variant in early December, while the UK was the first to be badly affected in Europe.

The United States remains by far the country with the biggest number of new cases with 796,500 per day on average, an increase of 34 per cent.