The number of monkeypox cases reported globally declined by 21% last week, after a month-long trend of rising infections, the World Health Organization said.

The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency in July. So far, more than 41,000 cases of monkeypox and 12 deaths have been reported from 96 countries, with the majority of cases from the US.

The decrease in case numbers may potentially signal that the outbreak is declining in the European region, according to WHO’s latest epidemiological report.

“There are signs the outbreak is slowing in Europe, where a combination of effective public health measures, behavior change and vaccination is helping to prevent transmission”, - WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Still, nearly 2 dozen countries saw a rise in weekly case numbers with the highest increase reported in the United States. Over 34% of the current global case count is in the U.S.