US coronavirus infections soar to near record in 24 hours
The number of new coronavirus infections in the United States is approaching record daily levels.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The number of new coronavirus infections in the United States is approaching record daily levels, with more than 35,900 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
That brings the number of cases in the country to nearly 2.4 million, the tracker from the Baltimore-based university showed at 8:30pm local time Wednesday (0030 GMT Thursday), after several days in which the number of cases has surged.
Nearly half of the 50 US states have seen an increase in infections over the past two weeks, with some -- such as Texas and Florida -- posting daily records.
The Hopkins tracker also showed Wednesday that 756 people had died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
That brings the death toll to 121,932 in the world s leading economic power, by far the most bereaved by the pandemic on the planet.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 478,818 people since emerging in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP as of 1900 GMT Wednesday.
At least 9,326,400 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 4,574,300 are considered recovered.
The tallies, 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.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
A total of 5,177 deaths and 160,065 new cases have been logged since 1900 GMT on Tuesday.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 121,662 deaths from 2,364,874 cases. At least 647,548 people have been declared recovered.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 52,645 deaths from 1,145,906 cases, Britain with 43,081 deaths from 306,862 cases, Italy with 34,644 deaths from 239,410 cases, and France with 29,731 deaths from 197,755 cases.
China -- excluding the regions of Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 83,430 cases, a rise of 12 since Tuesday, including 4,634 deaths and 78,428 recoveries.
Europe overall has 194,294 deaths from 2,575,077 cases, the United States and Canada 130,161 deaths from 2,466,837 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 100,684 deaths from 2,168,873 cases, Asia 30,624 deaths from 1,100,599 cases, Middle East 14,307 deaths from 678,804 cases, Africa 8,616 deaths from 327,259 cases, and Oceania 132 deaths from 8,958 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day s tallies.
Belgium has the highest fatality rate per 100,000 population at 84 followed by 63 for the United Kingdom, 61 for Spain, 57 for Italy and 52 for Sweden.
