The global number of new cases has been increasing for more than a month, with over 4 million cases reported in the past week – July 26 to August 1, the update said.

“This increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific Regions which reported 37 percent and 33 percent increases respectively as compared to the previous week, while the South-East Asia Region reported a 9 percent increase,” it said.

The general allocation of SDRs will become effective on Aug. 23. The IMF said that the new reserves will be credited to IMF member countries in proportion to their existing quotas with the agency. About USD275 billion of the new allocation will go to the world’s poorer countries.