Global COVID-19 cases tops 20 million mark

World Tuesday 11/August/2020 17:21 PM
By: Times News Service
Global COVID-19 cases tops 20 million mark

BEIJING: Global COVID-19 cases reached 20 million on Monday, with more than 730,000 deaths worldwide, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global case count reached 20,001,019, with a total of 733,897 deaths worldwide as of 2335 GMT, the CSSE data showed.

The bleak number of global infections has doubled in less than two months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the world.

With 5,085,821 cases and 163,370 fatalities, the United States has suffered the most from the pandemic, accounting for a quarter of the global caseload. Brazil recorded 3,057,470 cases and 101,752 deaths, second only to the United States. India confirmed more than 2.2 million cases.

Some countries in Asia and Europe have seen a second wave of infections arrive, while Africa and Latin America are also trying to slow down the spread of the virus.

Facing the grim milestone, as World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently urged, world leaders need to "choose the path of cooperation and act now to end this pandemic."

"It's not just the smart choice, it's the right choice and it's the only choice we have," the WHO chief said.