Global coronavirus cases cross 11 million

Global coronavirus cases have crossed 11 million, according to tallies by a news agency and the Johns Hopkins University, marking another milestone in the spread of the disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months.

Worldwide, there have been more than 526,000 fatalities linked to the disease so far, roughly the same as the number of influenza deaths reported annually.

The number of cases is more than double the figure for severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

213 countries and territories around the world have reported confirmed cases of the coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019.
The US now has over 2.8 million cases and 131,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus, according to a tracking website.

In Brazil, confirmed cases reached over 1.5 million, the second-worst outbreak in the world behind the US.

Brazil registered 1,252 virus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 61,884, the Ministry of Health said.

Daily cases in India that stand at 4th place in the scale of infections, hit a record high, breaching the 20,000 marks for the first time since the country’s first cases in January.

Asia and the Middle East have around 12% and 9% respectively, according to the Reuters tally, which uses government reports.

Countries including China, New Zealand and Australia have experienced new outbreaks in the past month, despite largely quashing local transmission.

Dhaka/Mukul