There are now more than 10 million confirmed global coronavirus infections

Coronavirus testing.
(Image credit: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

The number of confirmed global coronavirus cases crossed 10 million on Sunday while deaths approached 500,000. The 10 million figure is roughly double the number of severe flu cases recorded every year, per the World Health Organization.

The United States accounts for more than 25 percent of worldwide cases, and several states — including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona — either broke or matched their previous records for daily confirmed cases Saturday, prompting Vice President Mike Pence to call off campaign events in Arizona and Florida. Washington state, meanwhile, paused the fourth and final phase of re-opening in several counties after registering a new state record of infections over a seven-day stretch.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.