DEADLY NEW PHASE

Global Coronavirus Cases Surge Past Five Million After Biggest Daily Increase Yet

Latin America accounted for around one-third of the 91,000 cases reported earlier this week.

The global number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus has surged past five million after the biggest daily increase in infections since the pandemic took hold of the planet. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have now been 5,001,494 confirmed cases of the virus and 328,227 deaths around the world. The first cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Wuhan, China, back on Jan. 10 and it took until the start of April for the world to reach its first million cases. Since then, a million new cases have been reported every two weeks, according to Reuters. The latest figures appear to show that the pandemic is entering a new phase in which Latin America will gradually overtake Europe and the United States as the area where the virus is spreading at its fastest pace. Latin America accounted for around a third of the 91,000 cases reported this week, whereas Europe and the United States accounted for just over 20 percent each. Brazil recently surpassed Germany, France, and the United Kingdom to become the third-largest outbreak in the world, after the United States and Russia.