Global coronavirus cases surge past 10 million, fatalities exceed 500,000

NEW YORK: Confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases across the globe surged past 10 million, a chilling reminder that the deadliest pandemic of the modern era is stronger than ever.

The milestone is a rebuff to health experts and global leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who had hoped early in the pandemic that it would fade away with the summer heat.

Instead, infections are multiplying faster than ever.

It took four months after the pathogen first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan to reach 1 million infections.

The spread of the coronavirus has steadily accelerated, compressing the time frame to a million additional cases every week now.

And the latest milestone may serve only as a relative marker, as many believe the true number of infections to be higher given the difficulty of tracking infections.

The dail y of f i c i al c ount reached 150,000 cases in midJune, prompting World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to warn that the pandemic has entered “a new and dangerous phase”.

The death toll is equally sobering, at almost 500,000, and some health officials predict 1 million fatalities may not be far off.

“We haven’t seen the end of Covid-19, and we haven’t seen the full scope of it yet, either,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“This will be as dangerous as the Spanish flu in many ways,” he said, referring to the 1918 pandemic that infected an estimated 500 million people.