SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The global tally of people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus shot past 50 million on Monday, with a second wave of the virus in the past 30 days accounting for a quarter of the total.
October was the worst month for the pandemic so far, with the United States becoming the first country to report more than 100,000 daily cases, according to Reuters. A surge in Europe contributed to the rise.
The latest seven-day average shows global daily infections are rising by more than 540,000.
The virus – which first emerged in central China late last year – has claimed more than 1.25 million lives worldwide.
The pandemic’s recent acceleration has been ferocious. It took 32 days for the number of cases to rise from 30 million to 40 million. It took just 21 days to add another 10 million.
The number of cases in the United States is nearing 10 million and shows no sign of slowing, AFP reported. Europe, with about 12 million cases, is the worst-affected region, overtaking Latin America. Europe accounts for 24% of COVID-19 deaths.
In Asia, India has the world’s second-highest caseload but has seen a steady slowdown since September, despite the start of the Hindu festival season. Total cases exceeded 8.5 million cases on Friday and the daily average is 46,200, according to Reuters data.
