The global number of coronavirus cases crossed 16 million on Sunday, more than half of them in the Americas and the Caribbean, according to an AFP tally from official sources at 05:10 GMT, reports AFP.
The 16,050,223 cases include 645,184 fatalities with the United States the worst hit country, registering 4,178,021 cases and 146,460 dead. Europe has 3,052,108 cases and 207,734 dead.
The spread of the pandemic continues to accelerate and more than five million cases have been declared since July 1.
The biggest number of coronavirus cases is registered in the United States (4,009,808), followed by Brazil (2,287,475), India (1,336,861), Russia (806,720), South Africa (421,996), Peru (371,096), Mexico (370,712), Chile (341,304), the United Kingdom (297,918), and Iran (286,523).
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus – named COVID-19 by the WHO – have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
