GENEVA, March 1. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) has detected an increase in weekly reported COVID-19 cases for the first time in seven weeks, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during Monday’s briefing.

"In the past week, the number of reported cases of COVID19 increased for the first time in 7 weeks," he said. "Reported cases increased in four of WHO’s six regions: the Americas, Europe, South East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean."

"We’re working to better understand these increases in COVID19 transmission. Some of it appears to be due to relaxing of public health measures, continued circulation of variants, and people letting down their guard," he noted.

"Vaccines will help to save lives, but if countries rely solely on vaccines, they’re making a mistake," the WHO chief stressed. "Basic public health measures remain the foundation of the COVID19 response."

According to the WHO statistics, more than 2.6 million coronavirus cases were registered across the globe last week whereas a week prior there were 2.5 million confirmed cases.