Global Covid-19 cases surpass 5.25 million
The amount of cases of Covid-19 coronavirus recorded worldwide has passed 5.25 million, more than two thirds of these in Europe and america, according to an AFP tally at 1650 GMT on Saturday.
There are now 5,250,658 cases officially recorded, with 339,172 deaths related to the virus. Europe is the hardest-hit continent, with 2,003,510 cases and 173,186 deaths, as the United States may be the worst-hit country, with 1,604,879 cases and 96,125 deaths.
These latest figures mean that the number of recorded cases worldwide has doubled in per month, and that 250,000 new cases have already been recorded in under three days.
The region that's seeing the swiftest rise in cases is currently Latin America and the Caribbean, which saw 33,719 cases recorded on Friday - against 28,647 in the United States and Canada, that was previously where new recorded cases were appearing fastest.
On Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that SOUTH USA was "a new epicentre" of the virus, describing the situation in Brazil as particularly alarming.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the WHO, probably reflect only a fraction of some of the number of infections.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases. - AFP
