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According to a Reuters count, global coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million on Wednesday as evidence mounts of the airborne disease spread which killed more than half a million people in seven months.
According to the World Health Organization , the number of cases is triple that of serious influenza illnesses reported annually.
Many hard-hit countries are relaxing lockdowns set up to combat the spread of the novel virus while others, including China and Australia, are introducing another round of shutdowns in response to a resurgence in infections. Experts say improvements to work and social life will continue until there is a vaccine available.
In early January the first case was registered in China, and it took 149 days to reach 6 million cases. It took less than a third of the time – just 39 days – to increase the number of cases to 12 million, the count shows.
To date, there have been more than 546,000 deaths associated with the outbreak, within the same range as the globally recorded number of annual influenza deaths. On January 10, in Wuhan, China, the first death was recorded before infections and deaths in Europe and later in the United States.
The United States announced on July 3, when global cases hit the 11 million mark, a daily global average of 56,818 new COVID-19 infections. The U.S. reported a total of 3 million cases on Tuesday, which accounts for more than a quarter of both national and regional deaths that brought the pandemic policy of President Donald Trump under scrutiny.
While downplaying the severity of the pandemic, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus. Since July 1 the country has registered 20,000 to 50,000 new cases daily. Brazil has more than 1.7 million deaths and nearly 68,000.
The Reuters list, based on government data, indicates that the epidemic is spreading the most rapidly in Latin America. The Americas accounts for over half of the world 's diseases, and almost half of its deaths. Since the beginning of July, Brazil and the United States have accounted for about 45 per cent of all new incidents.
India – the nation with the third highest number of infections – fights a regular epidemic of over 20,000 new cases.
Case numbers represent only a proportion of overall infections in countries with limited testing capability. Experts caution that official figures are likely to underrepresent both incidents and deaths.
(With inputs from Agencies)