The number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths globally continued to decline in the past week, according to the latest report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.

New COVID-19 infections worldwide dropped by 5 percent during the week of February 28 through March 6, continuing a declining trend that started more than a month ago. Global deaths were also down by 8 percent and have been falling for the last two weeks, according to the report.

Only the Western Pacific Region saw a rise in coronavirus cases, reporting a 46 percent increase in the number of new weekly cases.

The highest numbers of new cases in the past week were reported from South Korea, with 1,461,431 new infections, an increase of 42 percent from the previous week.

Hong Kong has been recording about 150 deaths per day in the last week, as the highly infectious Omicron variant has recently overwhelmed the city. 

Elsewhere, COVID-19 is falling significantly. The biggest declines were seen in the Middle East and Africa, where cases dropped by 46 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

"These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries are progressively adopting targeted testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently of cases detected," the WHO said.

Notably, worldwide, the highest number of new deaths over the past week was still reported from the U.S., with 10,579 new deaths.

Many scientists have credited the global decline of new cases and deaths to the booster immunization programs undertaken in numerous rich countries, which have broken the connection between COVID-19 infection and severe disease.

Earlier this week, an expert group convened by the WHO said it "strongly supports urgent and broad access" to booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine amid the global spread of Omicron, reversing the UN agency's repeated insistence last year that boosters weren't necessary for healthy people.

(With input from AP)