The worldwide reported number of coronavirus cases has exceeded 35 million as at the early hours of Sunday, according to data from worldometers.info.
It also revealed that the total infections in Africa crossed 1.5 million, indicating a gradual increase in cases on the continent once perceived as a safe haven for the virus.
The official number of global coronavirus cases is now at least five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organization data.
The figure has more than doubled in about two months after reaching 15 million on July 22.
COVID-19, the potentially dangerous pneumonia-like disease caused by the coronavirus and said to have emanated from a local Wuhan market and spread to over 200 countries, has also claimed more than a million lives.
That has exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza.
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The US, India and Brazil have the most confirmed cases, but there is a renewed spike in infections across Europe with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning of an impending surge of infections in the continent.
“We have a very serious situation unfolding before us,” said Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, Euronews reported.
More than half of European countries have reported a greater than 10 per cent increase in cases in the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, the U.S., India and some South American countries remain the most impacted, records revealed.
