COVID-19 Global Roundup: 10 million infections and 500,000 deaths
Updated 15:16, 29-Jun-2020
An employee takes the fingerprints of a woman who died from the new coronavirus before her remains are cremated at La Recoleta crematorium in Santiago, Chile, June 27, 2020. /AP

An employee takes the fingerprints of a woman who died from the new coronavirus before her remains are cremated at La Recoleta crematorium in Santiago, Chile, June 27, 2020. /AP

Editor's note: This is the 85th article in the COVID-19 Global Roundup series. Here is the previous one.

The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones Sunday – 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases – and hit another high mark for daily new infections as reopenings were rolled back and governments warned that the worse news could be yet to come.

On average, more than 4,700 people are dying around the world from COVID-19-linked illness every 24 hours, according to Reuters calculations from June 1 to 27. This means one person dies from coronavirus every 18 seconds.

To date, more than 10 million confirmed cases have been reported globally. About a quarter of them have been reported in the U.S.

The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about 1 in 9.

The true death toll from the virus is widely believed to be significantly higher. Experts say that especially early on, many victims died of COVID-19 without being tested for it.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also announced another daily record in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world – topping over 189,000 in a single 24-hour period. The tally eclipses the previous record a week earlier at over 183,000 cases, showing case counts continue to progress worldwide.

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Overall, the U.S. still has far and away the most total cases, at more than 2,450,000 – roughly twice that of Brazil. The actual number of cases worldwide is expected to be much higher.

On Sunday, the governors of California, Texas and Florida, the three most populous states in the country, ordered to tighten some restriction orders in order to curb the new surge of the coronavirus.

New York, once the nation's pandemic epicenter, is now "on the exact opposite end," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in an interview with "Meet the Press."

The state reported five new virus deaths Saturday, its lowest reported daily death toll since March 15. During the state's peak pandemic in April, nearly 800 people were dying every day. New York still leads the nation in COVID-19 deaths with nearly 25,000.

During a campaign with the governor of Texas on Sunday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged people to wear masks when unable to practice social distancing. This is the first time that the Pence has publicly acknowledged the use of facial masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

He and Gov. Greg Abbott both wore face masks as they entered and left the room, only taking them off while speaking to reporters.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, meanwhile, defended the fact that President Donald Trump has rarely worn a mask in public, saying he doesn't have to follow his own administration's guidance because as a leader of the free world he's tested regularly and is in "very different circumstances than the rest of us."

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that a nationwide mandate to wear face coverings was "definitely long overdue," at a joint news conference with Abbott on Sunday, 

A health worker checks the body temperature of a resident, as others await their turn during a free medical checkup in a slum in Mumbai, India, June 28, 2020. /AP

A health worker checks the body temperature of a resident, as others await their turn during a free medical checkup in a slum in Mumbai, India, June 28, 2020. /AP

European leaders were taking no chances in tamping down new clusters. German authorities renewed a lockdown in a western region of about 500,000 people after about 1,300 slaughterhouse workers tested positive.

New clusters of cases at a Swiss nightclub and in the central English city of Leicester showed that the virus was still circulating widely in Europe, though not with the rapidly growing infection rate seen in parts of the U.S., Latin America and India.

Poland and France, meanwhile, attempted a step toward normalcy as they held elections that had been delayed by the virus.

Britain's government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the central English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain's first local lockdown.

"We have seen flare-ups across the country in recent weeks," Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC on Sunday.

Polish voters were casting ballots, in person and by mail, for a presidential election that was supposed to have taken place in May but was chaotically postponed amid the pandemic. President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative backed by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, is running against 10 other candidates as he seeks a second five-year term.

Iwona Goge, 79, was encouraged to see so many people voting in Warsaw.

"It's bad. Poland is terribly divided and people are getting discouraged," she said.

French voters were choosing mayors and municipal councilors in Paris and 5,000 towns and cities in a second round of municipal elections held under strict hygiene rules. Key battlegrounds include Paris, where the next mayor will preside over the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Wearing mandatory masks, social distancing in lines and carrying their own pens to sign voting registers, French voters cast ballots in a second round of municipal elections. Poles also wore masks and used hand sanitizer, and some in virus-hit areas were told to mail in their ballots.

"I didn't go and vote the first time around because I am elderly and I got scared," said Fanny Barouh as she voted in a Paris school.

Italy was honoring its dead later Sunday with an evening Requiem concert in hard-hit Bergamo province. The ceremony in the onetime epicenter of the European outbreak came a day after Italy registered the lowest daily tally of COVID-19 deaths in nearly four months: eight.

Africa's confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to climb to a new high of more than 371,000, including 9,484 deaths, according to figures released Sunday by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

South Africa's health minister warned that the country's current surge of cases is expected to rapidly increase in the coming weeks and push hospitals to the limit. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said the current rise in infections has come from people who "moved back into the workplace."

(With input from agencies)