The World Health Organization said it had registered a new daily record number of COVID-19 cases as it quickly exceeded the “tragic milestone” of five million total infections.
The UN agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there were “106,000 cases reported to WHO — the most in a single day since the outbreak began” in December.
The Geneva-based WHO’s coronavirus disease dashboard said that on Tuesday, 106,662 confirmed cases had been reported to the agency from around the world.
The new figures come after states around the world have been dramatically ramping up their testing programs.
“We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,” Tedros told a virtual press conference as his agency warned of rising infection figures in poorer countries.
More than 5.1 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered in total since the outbreak first emerged in China last December
Tedros added: “We’re very concerned about the rising numbers of cases in low- and middle-income countries.”
More than 320,000 people have lost their lives, according to the AFP tally.
