The total worldwide number of coronavirus cases has now reportedly surpassed five million people infected
More than five million people have been infected with COVID-19 globally, and over 328,100 have died so far.
According to data collated by the Johns Hopkins University, over 328,000 people have also died of COVID-19, the highly contagious disease caused by the new coronavirus, while nearly 1.9 million have recovered.
There are currently fears that the true number of cases of infection of COVID-19 could be much higher than reported, with many cases within the community being under-reported due to a lack of access to medical care across the globe.
This news comes after the UK coronavirus death toll hit 35,704 yesterday after a further 363 people died. The 18th of May marked the lowest rise in coronavirus-related deaths in the UK since the lockdown began in late March, with just 160 reported deaths.
The United States has both the highest number of cases of COVID-19 at 1.5 million cases, as well as the highest number of fatalities at 93,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
Russia, Brazil and the United Kingdom are the next three countries that have the next highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, while the UK has the second-highest death toll with more than 35,000 fatalities reported.
It comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases in one day.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
“We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,”
“We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle income countries.”
WHO officials are also being questioned about political issues due to the global pandemic, such as the notable criticism coming from the President of the United States.
The organisation has said that they were “looking into” a letter that was written to them by US president Donald Trump.
This follows threats from the US president to cut the country’s funding to the World Health organisation.
The WHO’s director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the organisation’s budget was “very small”, and that it was “equivalent to an annual budget of a medium hospital in a developed country”.
This comes after Donald Trump has promoted treating symptoms of COVID-19 with a drug used for treating HIV and Lupus called hydroxychloroquine, and announced on Monday that he himself was taking the medication as a precaution, despite not having tested positive for the coronavirus.
This news comes after as many as 50,000 to 70,000 cases of COVID-19 in the UK could be completely missed, due to an outdated list of symptoms presented.
