GENEVA, May 26. / TASS /. Over 4.1 mln COVID-19 cases and more than 84,000 deaths were recorded worldwide last week, while the coronavirus incidence has dropped by 14% and the mortality rate - by 2% compared to the previous seven days, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in Geneva on Wednesday.

"Over the past week, the new COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to decline: more than 4.1 mln infected and 84,000 deaths were reported. This is 14% and 2% fewer than the previous week," the WHO stated in its weekly epidemiological bulletin.

From May 16 to 23, a total of 4,144,658 new COVID-19 cases were registered worldwide. As of May 23, some 166,352,007 people were infected, while 3,449,189 coronavirus patients died.

Over the last week, the COVID-19 incidence surged only in Africa (by 4%) and in the Americas (by 2%), whereas in Europe, the coronavirus cases dropped by 25%, in Southeast Asia - by 21% and in the Eastern Mediterranean - by 2%. Meanwhile, the mortality rate rose in the Western Pacific region (by 22%), Southeast Asia (by 4%), Africa (by 2%) and the Americas (by 1%), however, the figure decreased in Europe (by 21%) and the Eastern Mediterranean (by 11%).

Europe reported over 524,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 12,000 deaths in the past seven days. In North and South America, over 1.2 mln new COVID-19 cases and more than 31,000 deaths were registered. Southeast Asia confirmed more than 2 mln cases, while over 32,000 people died. In India, the COVID-19 cases climbed by 1.8 mln over the past week. Brazil comes in second with over 451,000 new cases, and is followed by Argentina (more than 213,000), the US (188,000), Colombia (107,000), Iran (over 84,000), Turkey (over 71,000), Russia (over 61,000), Germany (over 55,000), France (over 51,000) and Nepal (over 61,000).