106,000 COVID-19 cases recorded in 24hrs — highest toll in a single day

The World Health Organisation has reported 106,000 new COVID-19 cases across the world in 24 hours.

At a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, said the figure is the largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases since the outbreak began.

The outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, a Chinese city, in December and has spread across 188 countries.

Ghebreyesus said two-thirds of the new cases were from four countries.

“We still have a long way to go in this pandemic. We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle income countries,” the director-general said.

“I said it time and time again that WHO calls for accountability more than anyone. It has to be done and when it’s done it has to be a comprehensive one.”

According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, the total number of cases worldwide is close to five million, with more than 325,000 deaths.

The United States leads with 1,539,633 cases and 92,645 deaths, followed by Russia with 308,705 cases and 2,972 deaths.

Brazil comes next with 271,628 cases and 17,971 deaths. Fourth on the list is the United Kingdom with 250,141 cases and 35,785 deaths.