Global Covid-19 cases cross 1 million, deaths above 51,000
The number of Covid-19 infections worldwide has reached 1 million with the United States being the worst affected accounting for almost 25 per cent of the total patients.
Johns Hopkins University, which monitors the pandemic situation, said the number of people infected with Covid-19 worldwide had increased to 1,002,000 on Thursday (April 2). The numbers in the US are up sharply while the death toll continues to increase in Italy and Spain.
More than 51,000 people worldwide have died, with Italy seeing the the most deaths, followed by Spain and the United States.
Currently, the disease has spread to 204 countries and territories with a worldwide death rate of more than 5 per cent of all officially reported cases of infection.
The United States has the highest number of cases (236,036), followed by Italy (115,242), Spain (110,238), Germany (84,284) and China (81,589).
Italy is the country with the highest number of deaths in the world (13,915), followed by Spain (10,096), the United States (5,777), France (4,503), China (3,318) and Iran (3,160).
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organisation's chief executive, warned yesterday that there is great concern about the rapid increase in the number of people infected with Covid-19.
"During the last five weeks, we have found that the number of new cases has increased dramatically. The infection has been found in almost every country, region and every area. Three months ago, we almost didn't know anything about this virus," said Dr Tedros.