Paul Nyathi

More than 50 million positive cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide since the pandemic began, the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University showed on Sunday.

There have been more than 1.2 million deaths from the disease worldwide since the pandemic started, according to the university’s tracker.

The US, with about 4% of the world’s population, represents almost a fifth of all reported cases.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally.

The United States has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first novel coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.

The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday and has reported over 100,000 infections four times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.

More than 237,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the virus first emerged in China late last year.

The daily average of reported new deaths in the United States account for one in every 11 deaths reported worldwide each day, according to a Reuters analysis.

US President-elect Joe Biden pledged in an address to the nation on Saturday to make tackling the pandemic a top priority.

Biden is expected will announce a 12-member task force on Monday to deal with the pandemic that will be led by former surgeon-general Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler. The coronavirus task force will be charged with developing a blueprint for containing the disease once Biden takes office in January.

Online Sources