New cases of COVID-19 worldwide jumped 8% last week - for a fifth consecutive week of increased transmissions, the World Health Organization says.
Europe has the most new infections as a result of its slow vaccination roll out and problems securing supplies, experts said.
The rise in Europe is being driven by a contagious and spreading variant, according to Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the organization's emerging diseases unit. She said new cases in Europe were up 12%, mainly because of variant strains of the disease.
"There is pressure to open up in many of these countries, and there are difficulties in people and individuals and communities to comply with proven control measures," she said. She said there was a "slight increase" in deaths across the world accompanying the arrival of the new variants. "We're also seeing that vaccination distribution is uneven and inequitable," she said.
Van Kerkhove said the organization was seeing a 49% increase in new cases in Southeast Asia as a result of a rise in infections in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, an 8% increase in the east Mediterranean region and a 29% increase in the western Pacific.
On the other hand, North and South America and Africa saw a "slight decline," but the case numbers in these regions overall were "worrying."
Van Kerkhove encouraged all people to continue practicing proven safety measures: social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding crowded spaces.
She also asked world leaders to prioritize vaccinating individuals most at risk, especially the elderly. "There is still far more we can do at an individual level, at a community level, as leaders in government," she said.
Many people want to be free of pandemic restrictions, organization executive director Dr Michael Ryan said. He says any easing of restrictions should coincide with measures such as strict case surveillance and high levels of vaccination. Vaccines alone aren't enough to conquer the coronavirus, Ryan said.
"I'm afraid we're all trying to grasp at straws," he said. "We're trying to find the golden solution: 'So we just get enough vaccines and we push enough vaccines to people and that's going to take care of it. I'm sorry, it's not."
The U.S is witnessing an increase in new COVID cases even as it reports vaccinating more than 116 million persons since December and are now vaccinating close to 3 million people daily.
The seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. increased by 5% or more in 27 states as of Sunday, based on data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has reported an average of 54,308 new cases per day over the past week, which is a 1% climb from the prior week after months of rapidly falling case numbers.
