A sad record. The World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm: the increase in new cases of contaminations with Covid-19 has reached records in the last two days. On Saturday July 19, it reported 259,848 additional cases in 24 hours and 7,360 new deaths, the largest one-day increase since May 10.

The report released on Saturday shows that the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa are the countries with the highest number of new infections. Brazil, Chile and the United States have the highest number of additional deaths. 

In total, the pandemic has therefore killed almost 600,000 people worldwide since the onset of the disease in late December in China. More than 14 million people have been officially diagnosed with the virus in 196 countries and territories, of which at least 7,700,000 are now considered cured.

A fraction of the actual number 

This number of diagnosed cases, however, only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections. Some countries only test severe cases, others use testing as a priority for tracing, and many poor countries have only limited screening capacity.

The United States is the most affected country in terms of both number of deaths and cases, with 139,266 deaths and 3,647,715 cases recorded, according to the Johns Hopkins University count. At least 1,107,204 people were declared cured.

After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil with 77,851 deaths, the United Kingdom with 451,119 deaths, Mexico with 38,310 deaths, and Italy with 35,028 deaths. Among the countries hardest hit, Belgium is the one that deplores the highest number of deaths compared to its population, with 85 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

With AFP and Reuters 

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR