Global weekly coronavirus deaths have fallen 9%, WHO reports

According to the latest weekly report from the World Health Organization, the number of coronaviruses deaths fell 9% in the past week.

There were more than 15,000 Covid-19 deaths in the past week, according to the UN health agency.

The number of deaths increased in the Middle East while decreasing in Africa and Europe.

There was a jump in cases in the western Pacific and a decrease in cases in Africa. The Americas and the Middle East saw a decrease in cases.

The WHO warned that it's assessment of Covid-19 trends is compromised by countries dropping many of their testing efforts.

The Omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for 70% of all virus sequences shared with the world's biggest publicly available database. BA.4 and BA.2 appeared to be decreasing in prevalence as BA.5 took over, according to the agency.

Tibet and Hainan are the sites of Covid outbreak.

There have been coronaviruses cases in the tourist island of Hainan and in Tibet. The Potala palace, the traditional home of the Dalai Lama, was shut down by the Chinese government earlier this week, along with several other cities.

Tens of thousands of tourists were stranded in Sanya this week after Chinese officials declared it a Covid-19 hotspot and required people to test negative five times before being allowed to leave.

On Tuesday, the Chinese government sent a first planeload of 125 tourists out of Sanya and said other flights would be arranged to fly out tourists in batches.