Coronavirus – More than 50 Million Infected Globally

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Numerous countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases

More than 50 million novel coronavirus infections have been detected worldwide, as a result of a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1615 GMT on Sunday, November 8.

A total of more than 50,010,400 cases, including 1,251,980 deaths, have been reported worldwide since the pandemic erupted in China in December last year.

With 12.6 million verified cases for more than 305,700 deaths, Europe has once again shifted the epicenter of the pandemic.

Just last week, out of the more than 3.9 million new cases recorded worldwide, more than half (2.1 million) were in the 52 countries of the European continent.

In the last seven days, the European nations that recorded the largest number of new infections were France with 381,000 new cases, Italy (223,000), the United Kingdom (160,000), Poland (159,000), and Spain (143,000).

The United States, which felt a slight respite over the summer, has seen the number of daily infections top 100,000 cases for the last few days.

The country is nearing 10 million confirmed cases for more than 237,000 deaths, or a fifth of all the infections detected in the world.

And the number of positive cases is advancing to climb, with an increase of 36% in new infections detected in a week (738,000) related to the preceding one (542,000).

After Europe, the worst-hit regions are Latin America and the Caribbean, with 11.6 million infections, 411,700 deaths, and Asia with 11 million cases and nearly 177,000 deaths.

Next is the United States and Canada with 10.1 million cases and 247,000 deaths, the Middle East (2.7 million cases and 64,500 deaths, Africa (1.9 million cases and 44,800 deaths), and Oceania with nearly 30,000 infections 941 deaths.

The polls, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.