Worldwide coronavirus cases exceed 30 million: Reuters tally

India becomes the latest epicenter of coronavirus pandemic

With the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, global coronavirus cases have exceeded 30 million, according to a Reuters tally.

The numbers of global new daily cases reached record levels in the past week with deaths nearing 1 million as the race against time to develop and market a vaccine continues.

According to World Health Organisation data, the official number of global coronavirus cases is now more than five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded yearly. 

Although North and South America’s cases combined account for nearly half the number of global cases, attention is on India as it becomes the latest epicenter for the coronavirus.

The south Asian country this week has followed the United States’ trail, becoming the second country in the world to record more than 5 million cases. It has been reporting more new daily cases than the United States since mid-August and accounts for about 16% of global known cases. 

Relatively low up to this point, reported deaths in India have been showing a sudden increase. The country has recorded over 1,000 deaths per day for the last two weeks.

The United States has about 20% of all global cases, while Brazil, the third worst hit country, accounts for about 15% of global cases.

Despite a few big surges, the global rate of new daily cases is slowing, reflecting progress through many countries’ efforts in containing the disease.

However, health experts would like to emphasize that official data almost certainly under-reports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with limited testing capacity.

Although the projected course of the coronavirus is far from the impact of the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected almost half a billion people, killing at least 10% of them, experts worry that available statistics are underestimating the true impact of the pandemic.