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WHO reports record daily increase in global coronavirus cases

Friday, 31 July 2020 6:16 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2020 6:16 PM ]

A medical specialist wearing a protective suit holds a blood specimen of a traveler who returned from Da Nang city at a rapid testing center for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outside Hanoi, Vietnam, July 30, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total rising by 292,527.

The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. Deaths rose by 6,812. The four countries have dominated global headlines with large outbreaks.

The previous WHO record for new cases was 284,196 on July 24. Deaths rose by 9,753 on July 24, the second largest one-day increase ever.

Deaths have been averaging 5,200 a day in July, up from an average of 4,600 a day in June.

Nearly 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the last week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally showing a pick-up in the pandemic in every region of the world.

Cases have been on the rise also in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Bolivia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Uzbekistan and Israel, among others.

Last week, cases in Latin America for the first time surpassed the combined infections in the United States and Canada, a Reuters tally showed. Infections are surging in Brazil, which is second in the world behind the United States in cases and deaths.

Globally there are over 17.4 million infections and nearly 675,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that the new coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 16 million people worldwide is the worst global health emergency the body has faced.

Coronavirus pandemic worst global health emergency WHO has ever faced: Director general

The WHO director general says the new coronavirus pandemic is the worst global health emergency it has ever faced.

Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, would the world manage to beat it, Tedros added at a virtual news briefing in Geneva.

Iran also on Tuesday registered a record 235 deaths in the past 24 hours from its outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Addressing a press conference, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health, Sima Sadat Lari, said a total of 296,273 individuals have so far contracted the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) across the country.