WHO: COVID deaths down by 15%, cases fall nearly everywhere

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization says the number of coronavirus deaths reported worldwide has fallen by 15% in the last week while new infections dropped by 9%. In its latest weekly assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were 5.3 million new cases and more than 14,000 deaths reported last week. WHO said the number of new infections declined in every world region except the Western Pacific. It said the predominant COVID-19 variant worldwide is omicron subvariant BA.5, which accounts for more than 70% of virus sequences shared with the world’s biggest public viral database.