Global coronavirus death toll surges past 500,000

The global coronavirus death toll exceeded half a million on Sunday as the number of worldwide cases surpassed a staggering 10million, marking the most devastating and destructive pandemic in a century.   

On Sunday, June 28 the global number of reported fatalities stood at 500,306 by 6pm EST and the global number of infections was reported at 10,070,339, according to figures by Johns Hopkins University in the US pulled from data collected from governments around the world.   

Over the past seven months more than five million people have recovered from the respiratory disease.   

The two sobering milestones in the coronavirus crisis come as the US leads with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world with over 2.5million infections.   

Following behind is Brazil with over 1.3million cases and Russia with over 633,000 cases.   

India has the fourth highest number of infections with over 528,000 reported and the UK has the fifth highest with more than 312,000 cases.   The US also leads with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths with 125,747. About one in four of global COVID-19 deaths – more than 125,000 – have been reported in the US.   Brazil follows behind with over 57,000 deaths reported and the UK with nearly 44,000 deaths reported.   

While the overall rate of death has flattened in recent weeks, health experts are now worried about record numbers of new cases in the US, India and Brazil.   

More than 4,700 people are dying every 24 hours from COVID-19-linked illness, according to Reuters calculations based on an average from June 1 to 27. That equates to 196 people per hour, or one person every 18 seconds.   

The dizzying numbers come as several states in the US including Florida, Texas and California have doubled down on closures and lockdown orders after there was a resurgence in infections when initial quarantine orders were lifted.   

However, some states are seeing miraculous numbers and a slowing of the pandemic including in New York.   

WHO announced Sunday another daily record in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world - topping over 189,000 in a single 24-hour period.
US, (Daily Mail), 
29 June 2020 

Millions more could die in second wave of Covid-19: WHO

Daily Mail, 29 June 202- Millions of people across the world could die if there is a second wave of coronavirus infections, the World Health Organisation warned on Friday.  
Dr Ranieri Guerra, an assistant Director-General for strategic initiatives at the WHO, said the pandemic had so far spread as health officials had anticipated.  

Comparing COVID-19 to the Spanish Flu outbreak more than 100 years ago, Guerra said the older pandemic ‘fiercely resumed’ in September and October - when temperatures were cooler - after a dip.  

He told Italy’s Rai TV: ‘The comparison is with the Spanish Flu, which behaved exactly like Covid: it went down in the summer and fiercely resumed in September and October, creating 50 million deaths during the second wave.’  

His warning was echoed by European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, who said on Friday that ‘of course there could a severe second wave if we learn anything from the Spanish Flu of 1918-19’.  

The Spanish Flu outbreak ravaged numerous countries around the world, including Britain, where there were more than 220,000 deaths and the US, where 675,000 died.