Coronavirus: global cases pass 20 million

The United States is the worst affected country, with more than 5 million cases and over 163,000 deaths

A woman carrying a child waits to board a special train to Rajasthan after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, at MGR Central railway station in Chennai, India. AFP

Devotees offer prayers at the Kuan Yin Temple in Penang, Malaysia. AFP

Students chat behind a plastic partition in a classroom at a high school in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. AFP

Principal Pam Rasmussen takes the temperature of arriving students at Happy Day School in Monterey Park, California, USA. AFP

Passengers wearing personal protective equipment queue at the check-in counters of Emirates, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Reuters

A security guard takes a delivery outside the Rydges Hotel which is being used as a quarantine hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. Getty Images

Protective face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus are sold at a shop in Tokyo, Japan. AP Photo

An electoral personnel sanitises self-inking pens at a ballot booth at a polling station during the general election amid the Covid-19 outbreak in Singapore. Reuters

People walk through a shopping arcade in Melbourne, Australia, as the city re-enters a lockdown after a fresh outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus. AFP

Firefighters spray disinfectant to curb the spread of coronavirus at the Martyrs' mausoleum in Yangon, Myanmar. EPA

Dr. Joseph Varon, right, leads a team as they try to save the life of a patient unsuccessfully inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA. AP Photo

Maria Delgadillo takes a selfie with her mother Rosa Torres at the entrance to Disneyland on the reopening day of the Downtown Disney District in Anaheim, California, USA. The Orange County Register via AP

Portraits of healthcare workers are displayed on the facade of the Opera Bastille, at the initiative of the collective #ProtegeTonSoignant to pay tribute to caregivers in first line during the Covid-19 epidemic in Paris, France. AFP

A woman works on the interior of a coffin at the Funerales Nazareth factory, where production has increased due to the ongoing coronavirus disease outbreak, in San Pedro Perulapan, El Salvador. Reuters

A visitor wearing a protective face mask takes a selfie near an art-wall painted by Indonesian artist Hanafi at Kertas Gallery during an exhibition in Depok, near Jakarta, Indonesia. Reuters

More than 20 million coronavirus cases have been now been registered across the world, over half in the Americas.

The United States is worst affected, with more than 5 million cases and over 163,000 deaths, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil and Mexico have also been heavily hit, logging more than 3 million and around 480,000 cases respectively.

More than four out of 10 coronavirus cases have been in the United States and Brazil. The pace of the pandemic appears to be stabilising across the world with an additional one million cases detected roughly every four days since mid-July.

It took 94 days for one million infections to be registered, after the announcement of the first official case in China. Eighty-six days later, on June 28, the 10 million barrier was broken. The number of known infections has since doubled in a month and a half.

Latin America and the Caribbean, the hardest-hit region with 5,601,470 cases and 221,281 deaths, continues to experience rapid spread with 576,583 new infections reported in the last seven days.

It is followed by Asia (495,663), Canada and the US (379,017), Europe (153,879), Africa (89,644), Middle East (74,588) and Oceania (3,372).

Canada and the United States make up the second hardest-hit region overall, having recorded 5,195,417 cases and 172,300 deaths, ahead of Asia (3,493,026 cases, 72,486 deaths), Europe (3,374,166 cases, 213,484 deaths) and the Middle East (1,257,417 cases, 30,363 deaths).

Africa (1,057,730 infections, 23,582 deaths), which is the least-affected continent after Oceania (23,351, 346), has recorded more than half of its cases in South Africa.

India is the country with the most new infections over the last week (402,287), ahead of the United States (376,471), which on Sunday passed the five million mark of officially reported cases. Brazil (301,745), Colombia (69,830) and Peru (49,174) are the next most affected nations.

The figure for the number of infections reflects only a fraction of the actual number of cases, as many countries use the tests only for tracing or do not have sufficient resources to carry out widespread testing.