The World Health Organization said the number of new cases of coronavirus reported worldwide fell by 16% last week, indicating a monthly decline in the number of COVID-19 infections.

In its weekly pandemic report, the WHO said deaths have fallen by 10%, continuing the decline in deaths first seen last week.

The WHO said more than 10 million new cases and about 60,000 deaths have been reported worldwide.

The Western Pacific was the only region where the number of COVID-19 infections increased by about a third from the previous week. Mortality rose by 22% in the Western Pacific and by about 4% in the Middle East, while it declined in all other countries.

The WHO has stated that the omicron variant remains dominant worldwide. None of the other worrying variants, including beta, gamma, lambda or mu, have been reported in the past month, although the WHO has said there are problems with surveillance in many countries.