The world already has over 60 million official cases of coronavirus

LondonThe world has again crossed a new threshold in the covid-19 pandemic: there are now more than 60 million officially confirmed infections according to, among other markers, the one from Johns Hopkins University. But the figure is actually much higher, perhaps 12 to 15 times higher, based on calculations by the World Health Organisation. The lack of screening tests in many countries is one of the factors explaining this.

The number of deaths is, this Thursday at noon, according to the American university, 1,423,292.The seriousness of the situation, which continues to affect Europe in particular and the United States even more severely, is demonstrated by the fact that in just over two months, since 18 September, the number of infections detected has doubled. Looking back even further, to 29 June, it is clear that the virus is on the rise: by that date, almost six months into the pandemic, only 10 million infections had been detected.

It has only taken 17 days to go from 50 to 60 million cases, compared to 21 days to go from 40 to 50 million. About 580,000 cases were reported every day during the past week, and almost half of all cases since the start of the pandemic have been reported during the past 70 days. If the pace continues at the same rate, estimates indicate that 100 million will be reached a few days after the start of 2021.

The United States continues to lead the way with 12.7 million infections, with India (9.2), Brazil (6.1), France (2.2) and Russia (2.1) trailing behind. Next are Spain (1.6), the United Kingdom (1.5) and Italy (1.4). In the last five days, the United States has reported 1 million new cases, according to official data. In fact, in the last 24 hours alone, between Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 200,000 cases were diagnosed, with 2,400 deaths.

As for Latin America, it has the highest number of deaths in the world, with 31% of all deaths, and about 21% of all infections.

Europe has recorded 16 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 365,000 fatalities. The growing number of infections in recent weeks has led much of the continent to impose new restrictions. To prevent more cases, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a European consensus to close ski resorts at least until January to avoid further outbreaks. Austria, however, does not want to take part and has already said that it will open resorts on 7th December, while resorts in Switzerland, which is not part of the European Union, are already open. "We will try to get approval at the European Union level for the closure of skiing," the German head of government said in a statement to the Bundestag. The EU spokesperson, however, said on Thursday that Germany could not claim powers that belong to Brussels.