WHO: Weekly COVID cases dip in Europe after weeks of gains

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization’s European region has recorded a slight drop in both COVID-19 cases and deaths last week after facing a string of weekly increases. The U.N. health agency also noted figures showing that all the 212 confirmed cases of the omicron variant so far identified in 18 European Union countries as of Monday had turned up asymptomatic or mild disease. WHO said in its weekly epidemiological released late Tuesday that the weekly number of new cases in its 53-country European region fell 2% to more than 2.6 million new cases reported over the last week. It also reported 29,000 new deaths over the period. That’s a decline of 3% from the previous week.