Coronavirus cases top 10 million worldwide

THE number of confirmed coronavirus cases has passed the 10 million mark worldwide, according to US experts.

A tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University reached the milestone yesterday after India and Russia added thousands of new cases.

The United States has confirmed more than 2.5 million infections, the most in the world. Globally, the Johns Hopkins tally has reported nearly 500,000 deaths.

While Johns Hopkins reports only confirmed coronavirus cases, experts believe the true number of people who have been infected could be as much as 10 times that figure, given that so many people cannot get tested or may have the virus without showing any symptoms.

China has extended Covid-19 tests to newly reopened salons amid a drop in cases, while South Korea continues to face new infections after it eased social distancing rules to boost the economy.

No positive cases were found in Beijing’s beauty and barber shops in a further sign that the Chinese capital’s recent outbreak has been largely brought under control.

Officials in the city have temporarily shut a huge wholesale food market where the virus spread widely, re-closed schools and locked down some neighbourhoods. Anyone leaving Beijing is required to have a negative virus test result within the previous seven days.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that 40 of the newly reported cases were domestically infected, while 22 others came from overseas. The bulk of the local cases were detected in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, linked to nightclubs, church services, a huge e-commerce warehouse and low-income workers.

Elsewhere, according to Italy’s Health Ministry data, there were eight further deaths of infected patients, raising the known toll to 34,716.

There were 175 new cases, taking the overall count of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country where Europe’s outbreak first exploded to 240,136.

In a sign that the country is emerging from the crisis, fewer than 100 infected patients were occupying ICU beds nationwide for the first time since the very early days of the outbreak.

European leaders were taking no chances, however. German authorities renewed a lockdown in a western region of about 500,000 people in the past week after about 1,300 slaughterhouse workers tested positive for coronavirus.