The world added the last million cases positive to the novel coronavitus in only 6 days — the fastest rate until now
Only six months since it was first reported, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has now infected more than 10 million people across the world and killed half a million people.
On December 31, 2019 China’s Wuhan district recorded the first novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case. By April 3, 2020 (95 days since the first reported case), the world recorded 1.03 million cases. But the next million cases were recorded in only 13 days (April 16) — taking the global tally to 2.04 million.
The world added another million to the total number of cases on April 29 (13 days), when the tally reached 3.06 million. On May 5 (12 days), the tally crossed the four-million mark. Eleven days later, on May 22, the total cases crossed the five-million mark.
All countries and regions together added the next million cases each on May 31 (nine days), June 9 (nine days), June 16 (seven days) and June 23 (seven days).
And now, the world has taken a mere six days to add the last million cases and breach the 10-million.
The incidence of new cases is also on the rise: In January, the world added 307 cases a day on an average. That increased to 2,600 cases in February.
The daily average jumped to 23,000 cases in March and soared to 77,848 in April. By May, the world was adding 93,342 new cases a day on an average.
Now, after 28 days of June, the average is at an unprecedented 140,134 cases a day. The highest single day jump was recorded on June 27 with 189,197 cases. The 16 days since June 13 have among them the 10 highest single-day addition of cases.
The trend is reflected in the death rate too. The world recorded 0.1 million deaths on April 11 (103 days since the first recorded case). The 0.2 million-mark was breached in the next 15 days (April 26). On May 15 (after 19 days), the world recorded 0.3 million deaths. It took another 24 days (June 8) for the global death toll to cross the 0.4 million mark. The 0.5 million-mark was breached 21 days later on June 29.
In this time, the virus has spread to 213 counties and territories recognised by the World Health Organization. Though the distribution is skewed towards a handful — only five countries accounted for well over half the cases:
The next five countries account for another 13 per cent of the global tally:
India has accounted for 5 per cent of the COVID-19 cases recorded around the world. Both the number of cases and deaths have been rising sharply.
In June, the country with the world’s second-largest population, recorded 12,627 new cases daily on an average. That number was 4,809 in May, 1,051 in April and only 41 in March.
The average daily deaths in June has been 390 — substantially higher than 131 in May, 35 in April and one in March.
Countries & territories that have reported zero COVID-19 deaths:
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