New York:
Global cases of the novel coronavirus neared 7 million on Saturday, as case numbers surge in Brazil and India, .
Worldwide, at least 6.9 million people have been infected by the virus, according to Johns Hopkins. The US has seen nearly 110,000 confirmed virus-related deaths and Europe has recorded over 175,000 since the virus emerged in China late last year.
About 30% of those cases, or 2 million infections, are in the United States, though the fastest growing outbreak is in Latin America, which now accounts for roughly 16% of all cases.
Globally, deaths from the novel coronavirus are approaching 400,000.
The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 400,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that health experts say is still an undercount because many who died were not tested for the virus.
The total number of deaths is believed to be higher than the officially reported 400,000 as many countries lack supplies to test all victims and some countries do not count deaths outside of a hospital.
The milestone was reached Sunday, a day after the Brazilian government stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections. Critics called the move an extraordinary attempt to hide the true toll of the disease rampaging through Latin America's largest nation.
Brazil's last official numbers recorded over 34,000 virus-related deaths, the third-highest toll in the world behind the US and Britain.
The United States accounts for about one-quarter of all fatalities but deaths in South America are rapidly rising.The United States has the highest death toll in the world at almost 110,000. Fatalities in Brazil are rising rapidly and the country may overtake the United Kingdom to have the second-largest number of deaths in the world.
The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in just five months is now equal to the number of people who die annually from malaria, one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.
The first COVID-19 death was reported on Jan. 10 in Wuhan, China but it was early April before the death toll passed 100,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments. It took 23 days to go from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths.