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Much to the chagrin of those who still do not believe that COVID-19 exists, those who are trying by all means to say it is over, or those who are against wearing masks: the global pandemic is still here, very much present. And the number of cases has reached a new milestone.
20 million coronavirus infections worldwide, a quarter in the United States
There was no doubt about it: the number of cases of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, was inevitably going to exceed 20 million, especially given the acceleration in the number of daily infections since mid-summer 2020. The only question remaining was when… and that time has come. As of this Tuesday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the world has 20,020,679 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
This new milestone is particularly significant because it was reached very quickly. While it took six months to reach the 10 million infection mark, surpassed on June 27, 2020, although the first cases are estimated to date back to late 2019, it only took a month and a half to add an additional 10 million cases. Since the end of lockdown in France on May 11, the number of cases worldwide has increased by 16 million.
We are inexorably heading towards 30 million cases
This sharp increase is largely due to the poor management of the pandemic by the three countries that now account for more than half of the cases: the United States, which has surpassed 5 million confirmed cases, Brazil (3 million cases), and India (2.2 million cases).
The trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon: while the number of new cases is rising almost everywhere in the world, including in France, raising fears of a second epidemic wave, new confirmed infections remain very high: around 250,000 per day on average. A level reached in mid-July 2020 and which has not decreased since.
At this rate, the math is simple: every four days, 1 million new cases are confirmed. Therefore, it would take 40 days to add an additional 10 million cases and reach 30 million cases worldwide, around September 20, 2020.
More than 5,000 deaths per day linked to COVID-19
This increase in the number of confirmed cases, which specialists also consider underestimated, is unfortunately accompanied by a constantly rising number of deaths.
As of August 11, 734,803 people have died from COVID-19, with the United States reporting the worst toll with 163,462 deaths, followed by Brazil (101,752) and Mexico (53,003).
Every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 5,000 people die from COVID-19 worldwide.
