A customer buys food in a half-empty grocery store, in Shanghai, China, on March 25 during a COVID-19 lockdown. The World Health Organization said, though, cases are now declining around the globe. Photo by Alex Plavevski/EPA-EFE
April 21 (UPI) — Weekly confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the globe dropped 21.7% as of April 11, the World Health Organization revealed on its weekly tracker as cases continued to drop internationally. The WHO reported 5.76 million confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, a decrease from 7.36 million for the week concluding April 4. It marked the fourth straight week global cases have fallen.
Weekly confirmed cases reached an all-time high of 23.29 million for the week ending Jan. 17 during the peak of a surge of the more contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Deaths from COVID-19 have also fallen, with 17,963 reported the week ending April 11, down 17% from 22,103 the week before and a weekly high of 76,479 from the Omicron surge reported on Feb. 7. Global deaths had reached 101,917 the week of Jan. 18, 2021.
While cases dropped around the world, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States increased nearly 24% to 245,594 for the week ending April 11 from 198,085 the week before. Weekly confirmed cases in the United States had dropped to 193,417 on March 21.
Cases in the United States had reached a record 5.61 million in one week on Jan. 10 during the rise of the Omicron variant. The dramatic increase forced some localities to return to pandemic restrictions until the recent drop in cases.
The federal government is appealing a court ruling this week that struck down a mask requirement for commercial flights in the United States.
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