Daily coronavirus deaths in the US surged to a three-month high of over 2,000 on Thursday and the number of cases passed 19 million globally, pushing many nations to further ratchet up restrictions in the battle against the pandemic, reports AFP.
The world’s hardest-hit country, the United States, has seen a major coronavirus resurgence since the end of June, adding 2,060 deaths in 24 hours alone Thursday, a tracker by Johns Hopkins University showed.
But other corners of the globe were also marking grim milestones, with Mexico’s official toll soaring above 50,000 dead and the continent of Africa hitting one million confirmed cases.
More than half of Africa’s infections are in South Africa, which has the fifth highest number of infections in the world, after the US, Brazil, India and Russia.
Nevertheless the African continent remains one of the least affected, according to the official figures, with only Oceania registering fewer COVID-19 cases.
At least 19,000,553 cases and 712,315 deaths have been registered worldwide, figures compiled by AFP from official sources at 2300 GMT showed, driven by surges in Latin America and India.
The United States has recorded the most deaths with almost 160,000, followed by Brazil with nearly 100,000. Globally, 40 percent of all cases have been notched in the two countries.
Europe remains the hardest-hit region worldwide with more than 200,000 fatalities since the virus first emerged in China late last year.
As governments across the globe struggle to salvage economies ravaged by months of lockdown, many have been forced to look at new measures to curb outbreaks of COVID-19 since they lifted initial containment orders.
Such is the case in Europe where nations imposed new travel restrictions and containment measures with fears growing over a second wave of infections.
In Australia, the second-largest city Melbourne entered the country’s toughest lockdown yet on Thursday, closing non-essential businesses and requiring hundreds of thousands more people to stay home.