GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) – The trend of COVID-19 cases in Africa is very concerning, a senior World Health Organization official said on Friday.

Absolute numbers do not make Africa look in bad shape, said Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, adding that in the last week it had recorded just over 5% of global cases and 2.2% of deaths.

But given the level of underdiagnosis, he told a news conference: “It’s a trajectory that is very, very concerning.”

(Reporting by Mike Shields and John Miller; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Alison Williams)