Coronavirus Global situation
Global coronavirus cases cross 50 million following 30-day surge
US the first nation to report over 100,000 daily infections; Europe is worst-affected region
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Medical staff transporting a Covid-19 patient to the emergency unit of a hospital in Strasbourg in eastern France last Friday. France is recording 54,440 cases a day on the latest seven-day average, Reuters data shows.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
NEW YORK • Global coronavirus infections exceeded 50 million yesterday, according to a Reuters tally, with a second wave of the virus in the past 30 days accounting for a quarter of the total.
October was the worst month for the pandemic so far, with the United States becoming the first country to report more than 100,000 daily cases. A surge in Europe contributed to the rise.
The latest seven-day average shows global daily infections are rising by more than 540,000.
More than 1.25 million people have died from the Covid-19 disease that emerged in China late last year.
The pandemic's recent acceleration has been ferocious.
It took 32 days for the number of cases to rise from 30 million to 40 million. It took just 21 days to add another 10 million.
Europe, with about 12 million cases, is the worst-affected region, overtaking Latin America.
Europe accounts for 24 per cent of Covid-19 deaths.
The region is logging about one million new infections every three days or so, according to a Reuters analysis. That is 51 per cent of the global total. France is recording 54,440 cases a day on the latest seven-day average, a higher rate than that in India, which has a far bigger population.
The US, with about 20 per cent of global cases, is facing its worst surge, recording more than 100,000 daily coronavirus cases on the latest seven-day average, Reuters data showed. It reported a record of more than 130,000 cases on Saturday.
The latest US surge coincided with the last month of presidential election campaigning.
President Donald Trump's rallies, some open-air and with few masks and little social distancing, led to 30,000 additional confirmed cases and likely led to more than 700 deaths, Stanford University economists estimated in a research paper.
In Asia, India has the world's second-highest caseload but there has been a steady slowdown since September, despite the start of the Hindu festival season.
Total cases exceeded 8.5 million last Friday and the daily average is 46,200, according to Reuters data.
REUTERS
