US first to report 10 million COVID cases; global tally is 50 million

The number of COVID-19 cases in the world has crossed 50 million, with the US becoming the first country to have more than 10 million coronavirus infections.

The US reported its last million cases in a record time of 10 days; it has had over a lakh cases in four out of the previous seven days. On Saturday, the country reported record 1,31,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, and the average number of 1,05,600 daily cases in the seven days till Saturday was higher than the combined average of India, the country with the second-highest number of cases with about 8.5 million infections, and France. 

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The pandemic has claimed over 2,37,000 Americans since the first case was reported in the country on January 20, according to a Reuters’ tally. It is now feared that the country is in the grip of a third wave of COVID-19.  

Most of the cases in the last seven days in the US were reported from Illinois, with over 60,000 new infections. Texas continues to be the state with the highest number of cases, having crossed the 1 million mark. The state has about 10 per cent of the total cases in the US. According to Reuters, the south region makes up for about 43 per cent — about 4.3 million — of all cases in the US. 

New York has the most number of deaths at over 33,000 fatalities. 

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has been heavily criticised for not doing enough to tackle the crisis caused by COVID-19. President-elect Joe Biden, who has defeated Trump in the recently concluded US elections, has said dealing with the crisis caused by the pandemic will be one of his biggest priorities.

He is likely to announce a task force of 12 members under former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, to come up with a plan of action to fight COVID-19 after he assumes office on January 20.

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Europe has reported 1,21,33,701 cases as on Saturday, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control under the European Union. The countries with the highest number of cases in the continent are Russia  with 17,53,836 cases, France with 17,48,705 cases, Spain, which has 13,28,832 cases, the United Kingdom  with 11,71,441 infections and Italy, which has reported 9,02,490 cases. Many countries in the continent, including France, Germany and Spain, have announced fresh lockdowns as they try to deal with a rapidly spreading second wave of the coronavirus.