The number of new Covid-19 cases continued to fall last week, with 3.6 million new cases reported globally, down from 4 million new infections previous week, the World Health Organization said.

Last week’s drop marked the first substantial decline for more than two months, with falling Covid-19 cases in every world region. In its latest update on the pandemic released on Tuesday, WHO said there were major decreases in cases in two regions: a 22 per cent fall in the Middle East and a 16 per cent drop in Southeast Asia.