The World Health Organization says Japan reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in the world during the week through Sunday for the fifth straight week. Meanwhile, the number of deaths ranked second for the second week in a row.

The WHO released its weekly update on COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Globally, 5,306,244 new infections were confirmed during the week from August 15 to 21, down 9 percent from the previous week.

Japan reported 1,476,374 cases, up 6 percent from the previous week. Japan's weekly figure was the highest in the world for five weeks in a row, accounting for about a quarter of the global total.

The country reported 1,624 new deaths in the same period. The figure is lower than that of the week before, but it was the world's second-largest number of new weekly deaths. The highest number was reported from the United States.

The WHO notes "current trends in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies."

It warns of the trend "resulting in lower overall number of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected."