Worldwide coronavirus cases top five million

21 May 2020, 07:28

There are now more than 5 million worldwide cases. Picture: PA

By EJ Ward

Coronavirus has infected more than five million people across the world and killed over 328,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Both the number of coronavirus deaths and infections are believed to be far higher as testing capacity is scattered and many countries do not include fatalities which occur outside of hospitals.

The United States remains the worst affected country with more than 1.5 million cases and 93,000 deaths.

The most recent million cases were added in just 11 days after the worldwide total hit 4 million, which itself came less than two weeks after the three-million mark.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that over 106,000 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours — the most in a single day since the outbreak began.

"We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news
conference.

"We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle-income countries."

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In China, where the worldwide pandemic is believed to have originated, there were no deaths reported on Wednesday and the country has jus 87 people in hospital being treated.

China has recorded a total of 4,634 deaths from the virus among 82,965 cases.