COVID-19 death toll hits 5 lakh globally

The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones — 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases — and hit another high mark for daily new infections as governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come. Roughly half of reported infections are known to have recovered.

A reported tally from Johns Hopkins University researchers said the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic had topped 500,00.

About one in four of those deaths — more than 125,000 — have been reported in the US. The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about one in nine.

The first cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed on January 10 in Wuhan in China, before infections and fatalities surged in Europe, then the US, and later Russia.

The true death toll from the virus, which first emerged in China late last year, 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 milestone comes as many hard-hit countries are easing lockdowns while making extensive alterations to work and social life that could last for a year or more until a vaccine is available.

Some countries are experiencing a resurgence in infections, leading authorities to partially reinstate lockdowns, in what experts say could be a recurring pattern in the coming months and into 2021.

The pandemic has now entered a new phase, with India and Brazil battling outbreaks of over 10,000 cases a day, putting a major strain on resources.The two countries accounted for over a third of all new cases in the past week. 

Countries including China, New Zealand and Australia have seen new outbreaks in the past month, despite largely quashing local transmission.

In Beijing, where hundreds of new cases were linked to an agricultural market, testing capacity has been ramped up to 300,000 a day.

The US, which has reported the most cases of any country at more than 2.5 million, managed to slow the spread of the virus in May, only to see it expand in recent weeks to rural areas and other places that were previously unaffected.

In some countries with limited testing capabilities, case numbers reflect a small proportion of total infections.

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