Official figures from the John Hopkins University have revealed there have been more than 50 million positive coronavirus cases worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to a tracker run by the university, there were more than 50.3 million cases recorded as at early Monday, 9th November.
Almost 10 million of the cases were recorded in the US, even though the country has only around 4% of the world’s population.
The US reported more than 126,000 positive cases and more than 1,000 deaths of people with COVID-19 on 7th November, according to the university.
It also marked the fourth day in a row that the number of new cases was more than 100,000.
This data underscores the decision by the President-elect of the US, Joe Biden to prepare to name his new team of coronavirus advisers and deliver on a promise to get the pandemic under control in the US.
While he will not formally enter the White House until 20 January 2021, he and vice president-elect Kamala Harris have already set up a transition team to get planning under way so action begins immediately after their inauguration.
Mr Biden has emphasized he will also reverse a number of Donald Trump’s foreign policies, including taking the US back into the Paris climate agreement and World Health Organisation.
“We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life’s most precious moments – hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us – until we get this virus under control,” he said.
He revealed a group of leading scientists and experts will be recruited to “help take the Biden-Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint” from 9th November.
He assured that the “plan will be built on a bedrock of science. It will be constructed out of compassion, empathy, and concern. I will spare no effort – or commitment – to turn this pandemic around.”
The president-elect’s website says his administration will “double up drive-through testing centres, increase PPE provision and expand the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s monitoring of China to prevent incoming threats.”
Data also showed that the global second wave of the virus in the past 30 days accounts for a quarter of the 50.3 million cases with October being the worst month for the pandemic so far.
Some 8.5 million cases have been in India and the UK accounts for almost 1.2 million.
More than 1.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide – 237,000 of these in the US, 162,000 in Brazil and 126,000 in India.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Tracker, almost 50,000 of the deaths were in the UK which is on lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the pandemic.
On 8th November, the UK confirmed 156 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus, compared to the previous day’s figure of 413.
Government data also showed that the number of people reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased by 20,572.
