The World Health Organization says the risk level related to the Omicron variant remains very high.

In its weekly epidemiological coronavirus update Tuesday, the U.N. health agency said over 21 million new cases were reported last week, representing the highest number of weekly cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.

Nearly 50,000 new deaths were also reported, it added.

Although it observed an overall slower increase in case incidence at the global level, the WHO said Omicron continued to increase its dominance over the other variants of concern.

It said that of samples collected in the last 30 days that have been sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID global science initiative, Omicron accounted for 89.1 percent.

Delta -- previously the world's dominant variant -- now makes up 10.7 percent.