Global coronavirus cases reaching 30 million but new daily cases slowing

Coronavirus cases worldwide are now five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, WHO data shows, but the global rate of new daily cases is slowing

A woman walks past South Korean health officials at a shopping district in Incheon. South Korea, which largely overcame an early Covid-19 surge with extensive tracing and testing - has seen several clusters in recent weeks, raising concerns of a second wave and prompting authorities to tighten social distancing measures last month. AFPShow less

Global coronavirus cases edged close to 30 million on Thursday evening and the number of deaths worldwide continued its grim march towards a million as the pandemic showed no signs of ending.

India is firmly in focus as the latest epicentre, although North and South America combined accounted for almost half of the global cases.

Global new daily case numbers reached record levels in recent days and confirmed deaths neared 950,000 as the international race to develop and market a vaccine heated up.

The official number of global coronavirus cases is now more than five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organisation data.

Although the official confirmed tally of Covid-19 deaths remains below the 1 million mark, the real toll is believed to be above that number given issues in testing and tracing of cases as well as discrepancies in recording coronavirus deaths in different countries.

But, with either figure, it means the international toll from Covid-19 has well exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza.

India on Wednesday became only the second country in the world, after the United States, to record more than 5 million cases.

The south Asian nation, the world's second-most populous country, has been reporting more new daily cases than the United States since mid-August and accounts for just over 16 per cent of globally known cases.

The US has about 20 per cent of all global cases, although it has just 4 per cent of the world's population. Brazil, the third worst-hit country, accounts for roughly 15 per cent of global cases.

It took 18 days for global cases to surge from 25 million to more than 30 million. It took 20 days for the world to go from 20 million to 25 million and 19 days to go from 15 million to 20 million.

But the latest figures do indicate a slight slowing in daily infections, potentially suggesting that containment measures are working in many places despite a few big surges.

Health experts stress that official data almost certainly under-reports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with limited testing capacity.

The race to develop and bring to market a novel coronavirus vaccine has grown increasingly frenetic in recent weeks with about 200 candidates in development globally.

US President Donald Trump has said his country could have a vaccine ready for distribution before the US election on November 3, while a Chinese health official this week said China may have a vaccine ready for public use as early as November.

While the trajectory of the coronavirus still falls far short of the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected an estimated 500 million people and killed at least 10 per cent of them, experts worry the available data is underplaying the true impact of the pandemic.