(Reuters) – The number of coronavirus infections worldwide reached 13 million on Monday, according to a Reuters count, which increased by one million in just five days.
The pandemic has now killed more than half a million people in six and a half months, and the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said there will be no return to the “old normal” in the foreseeable future, especially if preventive measures were neglected.
“Let me be frank, many countries are heading in the wrong direction, the virus is still the number one public enemy,” he said in a virtual conference from WHO headquarters in Geneva.
“If basic principles are not followed, the only way this pandemic will unfold will be worse and worse. But it does not have to be this way.”
The Reuters global count, which is based on government reports, shows that the disease is accelerating faster in Latin America.
The Americas account for more than half of the world’s infections and half of deaths.
Parts of the world, especially the United States with more than 3.3 million confirmed cases, are still seeing huge increases in a first wave of COVID-19 infections, while others “flatten the curve” and ease blockages.
Some places, like the Australian city of Melbourne and Leicester in England, are implementing a second round of closings. Hong Kong, ruled by the Chinese, albeit with a low number of 1,522 cases, is tightening social distancing measures again amid growing concerns about a third wave.
The United States reported a daily world record of 69,070 new infections on July 10. In Brazil, 1.86 million people tested positive, including President Jair Bolsonaro, and more than 72,000 people died.
“POLITICAL FOOTBALL”
The U.S. state of Florida reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases in 24 hours on Sunday, more than the total for South Korea since the disease was first identified late last year. She counted another 12,624 new cases on Monday.
Coronavirus infections are on the rise in about 40 US states, according to a Reuters comparison of the past two weeks and the previous two weeks.
However, United States President Donald Trump and White House officials have repeatedly said that the disease is under control and that schools should reopen in the fall.
“The president and his administration are playing with the health of our children,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“We all want our children to go back to school, parents and children do. But they must return safely. ”
WHO emergency chief Mike Ryan urged countries not to turn schools into “other political football”, saying they could safely reopen once the virus has been removed.
The leader of the Spanish region of Catalonia urged residents of an area of 160,000 people where cases have arisen to stay at home, despite the fact that a judge ruled the mandatory closure.
Spain, which has been one of the European countries most affected by the coronavirus, lifted the closure nationwide last month, when the pandemic seemed to be under control.
After the first cases were reported in China around the new year, it took three months to reach one million cases. But it has taken just five days to climb to 13 million cases from 12 million.
India, the country with the third highest number of infections, has been dealing with an average of 23,000 new infections every day since the beginning of July.
In countries with limited testing capacity, case numbers reflect a lower proportion of total infections. Experts say official data probably doesn’t represent infections as much as deaths.
(For an interactive Reuters chart, open this link in an external browser: tmsnrt.rs/2Zedzk8)
Reports by Gayle Issa, Stephanie Nebehay, Michael Shields and Silke Koltrowitz, Written by Nick Macfie and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Peter Graff
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