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| - The number of people infected by the coronavirus continued to surge in Europe over the past week, keeping the continent at the epicentre of the pandemic. A weekly roundup from AFP's specialised database: The pandemic continued to rampage over the past week across the world with a record average of 526,000 new daily cases, 11 percent more than during the previous seven-day period, according to an AFP tally on Friday at 1100 GMT. With 282,000 new cases daily, Europe is still the most-affected region -- far ahead of the US and Canada where new cases averaged 98,000 per day. However, the rate of increase in Europe dropped to 17 per cent from 40 percent the previous week, while the North American nations saw the rate decrease slightly from 27 percent to 22 percent. New infections increased by 16 percent in the Middle East and by 15 percent in Africa. Regions witnessing a slowing of the rate of new infections include Asia by two percent and Latin America and the Caribbean by 18 per cent. Australia and Oceania is virtually virus-free with a mere 17 new cases daily reported, down 13 percent. The number of confirmed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, as different countries have different counting practices and levels of testing. Serbia is the place where the pandemic advanced the quickest with a 100 percent increase or 1,700 new cases per day. Greece just behind suffered a 96 percent increase with up to 2,000 cases per day, ahead of Sweden (69 percent, 2,900), Hungary (68 percent, 3,800), and Austria (66 percent, 5,400). In the Middle East, Tunisia (62 percent, 1,700 cases) and Jordan (61 percent, 4,400 cases) have also seen significant accelerations in their infection rates. This week the biggest decrease in the infection rate was seen in Ecuador with a 44 percent drop in new infections down to 800 new cases per day. Brazil's daily tally dropped by 31 percent (to an average of 16,800 new cases per day), followed by Slovenia (-20 per cent, 1,500 cases), Myanmar (-20 percent, 1,100 cases) and Argentina (-19 percent, 10,500). By country, the United States recorded the greatest number of new infections this week, with an average of 94,300 cases per day, ahead of India (46,300) and France (45,500). While the number of infections is on the decline in India (-3 percent), it is getting worse in the United States (up 22 percent) and in France (12 percent more). Italy comes next with 29,800 cases or 38 percent more, then Britain (22,600 cases, 2 percent), and Poland (21,100, 41 percent). The United States mourned the most deaths in the past week with an average of 893 per day, ahead of India (541), France (431), Mexico (428) and Iran (410). The pandemic has cost the lives of at least 1,235,000 people since it first emerged in China late last year, out of more than 48.7 million confirmed infections. The United States is the worst-affected country with 234,944 deaths, followed by Brazil with 161,736, India with 124,985. This week Europe became the region that has reported the greatest number of cases since the beginning of the epidemic with a total of 11.9 million cases. Latin America and the Caribbean is just behind with 11.5 million. jah-nrh/eab/mbx
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