Covid-19 cases cross 30 million worldwide
India now the new epicentre as virus spreads at rate of a million cases every 4 or 5 days
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The rhythm of the pandemic seems to have stabilised globally since the middle of July with a million new cases surfacing every four days.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS • The number of coronavirus cases registered worldwide topped 30 million on Thursday.
The grim landmark came as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of alarming rates of transmission of Covid-19 across Europe.
The tallies, using data collected from the national authorities and information from the WHO, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
The global coronavirus death toll is now at nearly 950,000, after the virus surfaced in China late last year, and the number of cases has ballooned to more than 30 million, with infections showing no signs of slowing more than six months after the pandemic was declared.
The United States, India and Brazil account for more than half of the world's cases, with India emerging as the new epicentre, reporting nearly 100,000 infections a day.
The US has the highest national figures, with more than 6.6 million confirmed cases and over 197,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus.
It is followed by India at about 5.2 million infections and more than 84,000 fatalities, and Brazil with over 4.4 million cases and about 135,000 deaths.
It took 94 days for the world to hit a million confirmed coronavirus infections, and then another 86 days for the number of cases to cross 10 million on June 28.
The number of infections has trebled since then.
The virus is now spreading at a rate of one million cases every four or five days. From France to South Korea, former hot spots that had brought the virus under control are fighting fresh outbreaks, complicating efforts to reopen economies.
Governments, health experts and individuals are keeping a laser focus on the development of an effective vaccine to rein in the fast-growing pandemic.
Asia has registered the most new cases in the past week with more than 740,000 infections, of which more than 80 per cent are in India.
Latin America and the Caribbean are next at nearly 500,000, followed by Europe at more than 320,000, Canada and the US at over 270,000, the Middle East at about 112,000, Africa at around 52,000, and Oceania at more than 500.
Latin America has some 8.4 million infections in all and more than 316,000 deaths, followed by Asia with over 6.8 million cases and around 120,000 fatalities.
Canada and the US have nearly 6.8 million cases and 206,000 deaths, Europe has 4.7 million infections and 223,000 deaths, and the Middle East has 1.7 million cases and 41,000 deaths.
Africa has recorded more than 1.3 million cases and 33,000 deaths, followed by Oceania at nearly 31,000 infections and about 900 deaths.
The number of new cases rose 39 per cent in Britain over the past week, 22 per cent in Canada, 19 per cent in France, 11 per cent in Brazil, 9 per cent in the US and 8 per cent in India.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
