WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January. In its latest weekly assessment, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths in the last week, drops of 3% and 11% respectively. New COVID-19 cases rose in only two regions of the world: the Americas and the Western Pacific. COVID-19 deaths increased by 30% in the Middle East, but were stable or decreased everywhere else. China, meanwhile, is vowing to stick to a “zero-COVID” policy despite the fact that the WHO describes the policy as “unsustainable,” given the infectious nature of omicron and its subvariants.