As COVID cases rose for the seventh week in a row last week, the biggest jumps were in South Asia and the Middle East, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its weekly snapshot of the pandemic.Meanwhile, countries continue to look at their options for vaccines, as regulators in different parts of the world investigate reports of very rare blood clot events with the two major adenovirus-vector vaccines that have been launched.Surges in multiple regionsThe countries reporting the biggest increases last week include Iran (cases up 75%), India (70%), Argentina (52%), Turkey (33%), Japan (28%), Bangladesh (26%), and Iraq (22%).India today reported a new daily record high of 184,372 cases, with Maharashtra state, the country's