The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide has passed 19 million, according to an AFP tally from official sources.At least 19,000,553 cases and 716,315 deaths have now been registered.
Forty per cent of cases were in the United States and Brazil, the two worst-affected countries with 4,870,367 cases (159,864 deaths) and 2,912,212 infections (98,493 deaths) respectively
Global deaths from the pandemic have topped 700,000, and Europe remains the hardest-hit region worldwide with more than 200,000 fatalities since the virus first emerged in China late last year.
More than half of Africa’s cases are in South Africa, which has the fifth highest number of infections in the world, after the US, Brazil, India and Russia.
Nevertheless the African continent remains one of the least affected, according to the official figures, with only Oceania registering fewer COVID-19 cases.
As governments across the globe struggle to salvage economies ravaged by months of lockdown, many have been forced to look at new measures to curb outbreaks of COVID-19 since they lifted initial containment orders.
In Australia, the second-largest city Melbourne entered the country’s toughest lockdown yet on Thursday, closing non-essential businesses and requiring hundreds of thousands more people to stay home.
The pandemic has killed at least 712,315 people worldwide with the United States recording the most deaths with almost 160,000, followed by Brazil with nearly 100,000. Globally, 40 percent of all cases have been recorded in the two countries.
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