22nd July, 2020
Global coronavirus cases surged past 15 million on Wednesday, according to tallies by various trackers of the pandemic.
After the first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan, China, in early January, it took about 15 weeks to reach 2 million cases.
By contrast, it took just eight days to climb above 15 million from the 13 million reached on July 13.
Worldometers.info estimated global confirmed cases at 15,114,500 at 10:00 GMT.
Reuters reported a tally of 15,009, 213.
And the numbers keep rising exponentially, helped by the United States, Brazil and India.
The United States has the highest number of cases in the world with 4,028,733 cases as at Wednesday morning.
President Donald Trump warned: “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better.”
The top five countries with the most cases is rounded out by Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa.
But, the Reuters tally shows the disease is accelerating the fastest in the Americas, which account for more than half the world’s infections and half its deaths.
Globally, the rate of new infections shows no sign of slowing, according to the Reuters tally, based on official reports.
Health experts stress that official data almost certainly underreports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with limited testing capacity.
The official number of coronavirus cases at over 15 million is at least triple the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organization data.
The death toll of more than 610,000 in seven months is close to the upper range of yearly influenza deaths.