GENEVA, December 15. /TASS/. Over 4 mln people contracted the coronavirus infection worldwide over the past week, almost 47,000 died. As the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday, the number of new infections decreased by 5%, while the number of fatalities decreased by 10% compared to the previous seven days.

"Globally, the weekly incidence of both cases and deaths declined during the past week (6-12 December 2021), with decreases of 5% and 10% respectively, as compared to the previous week," the WHO COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update said. According to the statistics cited in the document, from December 6 through December 12, 4,000,817 infections were detected and 46,961 fatalities were recorded.

Europe accounts for 65% of weekly infections and 60% of deaths: a 7% decrease in incidence was recorded, while the mortality decreased by 3%. A significant increase in incidence was registered in Africa (by 111%). At the same time, the number of infections has significantly decreased in America (by 10%), and South-East Asia (by 10%). "New weekly deaths decreased by 50% in the South-East Asia Region (due to an artificial increase in deaths from batch reporting in the previous week) and 14% in the Region of the Americas, while the number of weekly deaths in all other regions remained similar to those reported in the previous week," according to the document.

The US reported the highest number of weekly infections (674,019), followed by Germany (351,738), the UK (350,340), France (335,972), and Russia (215,283).

Over the past 60 days, the prevailing Delta strain was detected in 99.2% of tests, the Omicron strain was found in 0.4%. The WHO points out that the Omicron strain, uncovered in 77 countries, "appears to have a growth advantage over Delta": it is spread faster not only in South Africa where Delta circulation was "low," but "also appears to be spreading more quickly than the Delta variant in countries where the incidence of Delta is high, such as in the United Kingdom." Experts, citing preliminary data, note that vaccines are less effective against Omicron while the risk of reinfection with this strain is higher. "As a result of this, the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," the document says.

As of December 14, since the beginning of the pandemic, 270,031,622 people have been infected worldwide and 5,310,502 deaths have been reported. Over the past 24 hours, the number of infections has increased by 395,564, while the number of fatalities has increased by 5,312. The US is in first place in terms of confirmed infections reported to the WHO with 49,629,855 cases, followed by India (34,703,644) and Brazil (22,167,781). The highest number of fatalities was also recorded in the US (790,920), followed by Brazil (616,251) and India (475,888).