PARIS • The number of coronavirus cases worldwide crossed 16 million yesterday, surging by one million new cases in just four days. More than half of the cases are in the Americas and the Caribbean, according to an Agence France-Presse tally from official sources.

Cases in Singapore, meanwhile, crossed the 50,000 mark yesterday, with 481 new cases announced.

About 94 per cent of Singapore's 50,369 patients are migrant workers staying in dormitories.

The Ministry of Health on Saturday said it expects the daily case counts to be high for the coming two weeks before tapering, as the inter-agency task force targets to clear all dormitories by the beginning of next month.

The more than 16 million global cases include over 649,000 fatalities, with the United States the worst-hit country. The US has registered more than 4.3 million infections and over 149,000 deaths.

Florida yesterday became the second state after California to overtake New York. Total Covid-19 cases in the Sunshine State rose by 9,300 to over 423,000, just one place behind California, which now leads the country with more than 448,000 cases. New York is in third place with nearly 416,000 cases.

Australia, meanwhile, had its deadliest day yesterday since the pandemic began, with the authorities reporting 10 fatalities and a rise in new infections, despite an intensive lockdown effort.

Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded some 4.3 million cases and over 182,000 deaths, followed by Europe with more than three million cases and over 207,000 deaths.

The spread of the pandemic continues to accelerate and more than five million cases have been declared this month, which represent a third of the total number of cases since the pandemic began.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says more than a million cases were recorded in each of the last five weeks, with over 280,000 reported last Friday alone.