COVID-19 causing 196 deaths every hour, global toll crosses 5 lakh

Nearly five months after the novel coronavirus was discovered in China, the global death toll of COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed half a million. While the coronavirus contagion reached a grim milestone with certain parts of the world recording resurgence of new cases, a tally by international media agency concluded that 196 people are dying of the disease every hour, implying that one death is recorded every 18 seconds. As of June 29, the global COVID-19 cases have reached 10,149,026  with 500,962  deaths.

Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak as pandemic on March 11, it has now spread to over 220 countries and territories out of which 189 have reported casualties. The respiratory illness that has infected over 10.1 million people across the globe has been causing the death of at least 4,700 people every 24 hours.

Health experts have also raised concerns over the sudden resurgence of cases in the United States, Brazil, India along with some parts of Asia. The international media agency derived the latest figures of the pandemic by calculating the average from June 1 to June 27. Moreover, it has also stated that at least 25 per cent of the total deaths have occurred in the United States which is also the most virus-hit country in the world. 

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COVID-19 cases resurge in certain parts

While COVID-19 cases are spiking in the Western and southern states of America, they have witnessed a sudden hike in Latin America which WHO also called “new epicentre” of the disease. On June 28, the coronavirus infections in Latin America surpassed those in European countries and the region became the second-most affected by the coronavirus outbreak after North America. Moreover, Australian officials are also considering the reimposing of COCID-19 restrictions after they recorded the biggest one-day spike in new cases since April. 

The first death due to coronavirus infection was recorded back on January 9 of a 61-year-old man from the Chinese city of the province who was the regular customer of the wet market that has been globally identified as the source of the pandemic. Since then, the death toll has overtaken the number of people who die of malaria every year. 

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Inputs: Agency/ Image: AP