Deaths from the coronavirus surged more than 40% last week, likely due to changes in how COVID-19 deaths are reported across the Americas and newly adjusted figures in India, according to a report by the World Health Organization on Wednesday.

The UN health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the number of new coronavirus cases has fallen around the world, including in the WHO’s Western Pacific region, where cases have risen since December The numbers keep going up.

Around 10 million new COVID-19 infections and more than 45,000 deaths have been reported globally over the past week, after a 23% drop in deaths the previous week.

Reported deaths rose from 33,000 last week, largely due to accounting changes; the WHO noted that countries including Chile and the United States changed their definitions of COVID-19 deaths.

In addition, the Indian state of Maharashtra recorded more than 4,000 new deaths last week that were not initially included in the COVID-19 death toll, according to the WHO.

The WHO has repeatedly said that the number of COVID-19 cases may significantly underestimate the prevalence of the coronavirus. The agency has warned countries in recent weeks not to abandon comprehensive testing and other surveillance measures, saying doing so would undercut efforts to accurately track the spread of the virus.

“Data are becoming less representative, less timely and less reliable,” the WHO said. “This inhibits our collective ability to track where, how the virus spreads and how it evolves: information and analysis are essential for effective Ending the acute phase of the pandemic remains critical.”

The agency warned that less surveillance would particularly hurt efforts to detect new COVID variants and undermine potential responses.

Many countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere have recently scrapped nearly all COVID-19 protocols, relying on high levels of vaccination to prevent spikes in reinfection, even as the more contagious omicron sub-variant BA.2 is causing a rise in new cases .

British authorities said that while they expected to see more cases, there had not been a commensurate increase in hospitalizations and deaths.

China locked down Shanghai this week in an attempt to contain an omicron outbreak that has caused the largest wave of illness in the country since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in 2019, despite a drop in reported cases globally.

U.S. officials expanded access to vaccine boosters on Tuesday, as regulators said Americans 50 and older could get a second booster at least four months after their last dose.

Meanwhile, an AP-NORC poll found that less than half of Americans now regularly wear masks, avoid crowds and skip non-essential travel.