Over 10m corona cases registered worldwide

ISLAMABAD: The total number of coronavirus cases has topped 10 million globally, according to international media reports, as the pandemic surges particularly in the United States and Latin America.

At least 10,176,357 infections, including 502,861 deaths, have been registered around the world. The rate of infections worldwide has doubled since May 21, with one million new cases recorded in just the last six days.

In Latin America alone, more than 400,000 new cases were registered in the past week, while India´s total topped 548,000 on Sunday. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases and some do not have the capacity to carry out widescale testing.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the number of people infected in the United States is 10 times the official figures, or more than 20 million people. The disease is gaining ground in 30 of the 50 states, mainly the biggest and most populous in the south and west such as California, Texas and Florida.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the virus is spreading most rapidly. Between June 21 and 27 the region registered 408,401 new cases, compared with 253,624 in the US and Canada and 121,824 in Europe. In total, Latin America has 2,432,558 infections with 110,695 deaths.

Brazil is the worst affected with 1,319,274 cases -- 246,088 in the last seven days, followed by Peru (a total of 275,989 with 24,651 new in the last week), Chile (271,982 total, 31,018 new), Mexico (212,802 total, 37,600 new) and Colombia (88,592 total, 22,959 new).

Asia is also facing a surge in cases, particularly in India which has a total of 528,859 infections including 118,398 over the past seven days.

India is followed by Pakistan (202,955 total, 26,338 new) and Bangladesh (137,787 total, 25,481 new).

In Europe, the number of cases recorded daily has stabilised over the past month at fewer than 20,000, but the World Health Organisation has warned of a "significant resurgence" on the continent.

China imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding the capital to contain a fresh coronavirus cluster on Sunday, as authorities warned the outbreak was still "severe and complicated."

After China largely brought the virus under control, hundreds have been infected in Beijing and cases have emerged in neighbouring Hebei province in recent weeks.

Health officials said Sunday that Anxin county -- about 150 kilometres from Beijing -- will be "fully enclosed and controlled", the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year.

Only one person from each family will be allowed to go out once a day to purchase necessities such as food and medicine, the county´s epidemic prevention task force said in a statement.

The move comes after another 14 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, taking the total to 311 since mid-June and spurring the testing of millions of residents.

Meanwhile, the US President Donald Trump faced mounting bipartisan pressure Sunday to set an example by wearing a face mask, as his health secretary warned the "window is closing" to gain control of an explosion of infections in conservative-led US states.

New coronavirus cases have been surging in more than half of US states, reaching record new highs after months of mitigation efforts applied unevenly across the country and sometimes contradictory messaging from the government.

Hardest hit have been southern and western states that pushed for early economic reopenings. But the latest upsurge, pushing the nation´s total of declared cases over 2.5 million and its death toll past 125,000, has prompted a growing chorus of calls for much tougher rules and enforcement. "This is a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.

Meanwhile, police in The Hague said on Sunday they had detained 37 protesters who ignored a court ban and held a demonstration against social distancing rules imposed to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Around 200 protesters took part in Sunday’s demonstration, far fewer than a week ago when several thousand attended a similar protest. Organisers had called on people to stay home this week in view of Friday’s court ruling that the protest violated restrictions on public gatherings.

The protesters say a policy of requiring people to stand 1.5 metres (about four feet) apart is undemocratic and should be lifted. The Netherlands has recorded more than 50,000 COVID-19 infections and more than 6,000 deaths since mid-March. Restrictions are being lifted after a steep decline in new cases and deaths in recent weeks.