KIU, Main Campus – As of 19th October, 2020, worldwide cases of COVID-19 crossed 40 million as the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere fuelled a resurgence in the spread of the disease.

Record one-day increases in new infections were seen at the end of last week, with global Coronavirus cases rising above 400,000 for the first time.

There was an average of around 347,000 cases each day over the past week, compared with 292,000 in the first week of October.

Experts, however, believe the true numbers of both cases and deaths are likely much higher, given deficiencies in testing and potential under-reporting by some countries.

It took just 32 days to go from 30 million global cases to 40 million, compared with the 38 days it took to get from 20 to 30 million, the 44 days between 10 and 20 million, and the three months it took to reach 10 million cases from when the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China, in early January.

Since the pandemic started, over 1.1 million people have died due to Covid-19, with the global fatality rate hovering around 2.8% of the total cases.

An official at the World Health Organisation has said the global death toll from Covid-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic.