YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS. More than 2.6 mln COVID-19 cases and over 57,000 deaths were recorded worldwide last week, the coronavirus incidence surged by 2%, while the death toll fell by 10%, reaching a new low since November 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday, reports TASS.

"Globally, COVID-19 incidence remains very high, with an average of over 370,000 cases reported each day over the past week," the WHO stated in its weekly epidemiological bulletin. "The number of new deaths continued to decrease, with over 57,000 new deaths reported globally. This is the lowest weekly mortality figure since those recorded in early November 2020."

Over the past week, some 2,600,313 new COVID-19 cases and 57,603 deaths were recorded across the world. As of June 27, as many as 180,492,131 cases of infection and 3,916,771 deaths were confirmed.

Last week, the COVID-19 incidence decreased in the Western Pacific Region (by 6%) and Southeast Asia (by 5%), while the figure rose in Africa (by 34%), the Eastern Mediterranean (by 13%) and Europe (by 10%). The coronavirus mortality rate surged in Africa (by 42%), however, it dropped in Southeast Asia (by 33%), the Western Pacific region (by 13%) as well as in the Americas (by 2%) and Europe (by 1 %).

Europe reported over 372,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 6,000 deaths over the past week. In the Americas, more than 1.1 mln new weekly cases of infection and over 30,000 deaths were registered. In Southeast Asia, doctors recorded over 573,000 coronavirus cases, while the death toll surpassed 13,000.

According to the WHO, the spread of COVID-19 strains classified as "variants of concern" is growing. In particular, the Alpha strain, found in September 2020 in the UK, was recorded as of June 29 in 172 countries (two more than a week earlier). The Beta strain, originally identified in South Africa, is now circulating in 120 countries, while there were 119 a week ago. The Brazilian Gamma strain, found in September, expanded its geography from 71 to 72 states in seven days. Furthermore, the Indian Delta strain, which has been discovered since October 2020, hit 11 new countries in a week, bringing their total number to 96.

According to the WHO bulletin, the Delta strain is likely to spread across a larger number of countries, since the possibilities for identifying COVID-19 variants are limited. Some countries attribute the surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to the Delta variant’s presence. The Delta strain, "given the increase in transmissibility, is expected to rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant variant over the coming months", experts predict.