Some four million coronavirus cases were reported globally last week, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), marking the first major drop in new infections in more than two months.
The UN health agency said, in its weekly update, that every region in the world had seen a fall in Covid-19 cases compared to the previous week.
Over recent weeks, there have been about 4.4 million new Covid-19 cases reported.
Although the worldwide number of deaths decreased to about 62,000, with the sharpest decline in Southeast Asia, there was a 7% increase in deaths in Africa.
The highest numbers of cases were seen in the US, Britain, India, Iran and Turkey and the highly contagious Delta variant had now been reported in 180 countries.
WHO also said children and teenagers continued to be less affected by Covid-19 compared to adults, adding that deaths of people aged under 24 due to the disease accounted for less than 0.5% of global deaths.
The agency has previously said that children should not be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccinations given the extreme vaccine shortages globally.
