Washington: The death toll from COVID-19 increased by 20 percent between December 19 and January 15 compared to the previous 28 days and reached 53.000 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

"In the last 28 days (19 December 2022 to 15 January 2023), nearly 13 million cases and almost 53 000 new deaths were reported globally – a decrease of 7% and an increase of 20%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days," the WHO said in a statement.

According to the statement, more than 13,000 deaths and 2.8 million new cases were recorded from January 9-15.

As of January 15, there were more than 662 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, and more than 6.7 million people died, the statement noted.

(With UNI inputs)