WHO: New record hit in COVID-19 infections in single day

Wuhan, China. Photo: MTI/EPA/COSTFOTO

The number of COVID-19 cases reported in one day hit a new record, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday.

There were 307,930 new infections with the novel coronavirus globally over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day figure ever registered and about 1,000 more than the previous recording-setting daily caseload a week earlier.

Around the world, more than 28.6 million cases have been registered so far and the death toll exceeded 917,400, according to the WHO tally.

The United States still tops the global rank of COVID-19 caseload and fatalities, with its total number of infections surpassing 6.5 million on Sunday,

according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. case count rose to 6,501,904, with the national death toll reaching 193,843 as of 1:26 p.m. local time (1726 GMT), according to the CSSE.

Brazil registered the world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the world’s third-largest case count.

Brazil on Sunday said 415 deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours pushed the total death toll to 131,625.

According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, in the same period, tests detected 14,768 new cases of infection, taking the total caseload since the onset of Brazil’s outbreak in Sao Paulo on Feb. 26 to 4,330,455.