The past week saw the highest number of new COVID-19 cases reported globally since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

WHO said more than two million new infections were reported in the last seven days as parts of the world continue to report a resurgence of virus cases.

"As of 25 October, over 42M cases and 1.1M deaths have been reported, with over 2.8M new cases and nearly 40,000 new deaths reported over the past week," the agency said.

Africa registered 32,000 new cases and 800 new deaths over the past week. The region accounts for around 1 percent of new global cases and 2 percent of new global fatalities.

WHO noted that for the second consecutive week, Europe accounted for the greatest proportion of the reported new infections, with over 1.3 million new cases reported in the past seven days – a 33% increase in cases compared to the previous week. The region accounts for nearly half of all new cases reported worldwide this week (46%).

Europe has also seen an increase in its number of COVID-19 deaths, registering 35 percent more fatalities than last week and accounting for nearly one third of all new deaths globally.

The Americas reported 880,000 new cases (31 percent of the global total) and 17,000 new deaths (43 percent of the global total) over the past week.

In the same period, there were 159,000 new cases and 4,000 deaths reported in the Eastern Mediterranean region. This represents a 6 percent increase in cases from last week.

The South-East Asia region continued to see a decline in its caseload, a trend that has lasted five weeks now. In the past seven days, the region reported a 13 percent decline in new infections and a 16 percent decline in fatalities.

As various regions continue to report contrasting virus tendencies, the WHO has urged countries not to let their guard down in order to curb further spread of COVID-19.

In a media briefing earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom called for "compromises and sacrifices" in the fight against the pandemic.