COVID-19 Cumulative Cases Exceed 400,000... 'Sharp Increase in Europe and US'

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) worldwide has surpassed 400,000. As the number of confirmed cases rapidly increases in the United States and Europe, the rate of increase by 100,000 units is also accelerating.

According to the real-time tally by Johns Hopkins University in the United States as of 8 p.m. local time on the 24th, the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide reached 417,582. This means that more than 100,000 new patients have been reported within just three days since surpassing 300,000 on the 21st.

What is noteworthy is that as COVID-19 spreads across the world, the speed of increase is becoming faster and faster.

The cumulative confirmed cases, which were 45,200 on the 12th of last month, exceeded 100,000 on the 10th of this month, 20 days later. Then, 8 days later on the 18th, it surpassed 200,000. The cumulative confirmed cases broke through 300,000 three days after that. And again, three days later on the 24th, the cumulative confirmed cases exceeded 400,000.

New confirmed cases are also increasing in trend. Except for the time when China changed its counting method, until the 10th of this month, new confirmed cases worldwide did not exceed 5,000 per day. However, from the 13th, the number increased to over 10,000 daily, and on the 19th, it exceeded 20,000 for the first time. On the 21st (32,400 cases) and 22nd (32,600 cases), the increase was over 30,000, and on the 23rd, it rose by 41,500 cases.

The rapid increase in confirmed cases is largely influenced by Europe and the United States. Italy's cumulative confirmed cases reached 69,176, making it highly likely to surpass China and become the country with the highest number of confirmed cases in the world within a few days. Spain's cumulative confirmed cases are 39,885, ranking fourth in the world.

In the United States, the cumulative confirmed cases exceeded 50,000 on this day. With 53,660 cases, it ranks third in the world for the number of confirmed cases. On the 24th of last month, the cumulative confirmed cases were 51, meaning it has increased 1,000 times in one month. In particular, the United States has been changing the leading digit daily with 19,100 cases on the 20th, 25,500 on the 21st, and 33,300 on the 22nd.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Because of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concerns that the United States could become a new epicenter of COVID-19 following Europe. On this day, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris stated at a regular briefing that 40% of new COVID-19 confirmed cases occurred in the United States. During the Q&A session, Harris said, "We can see the spread in the United States is accelerating very rapidly," and added, "There is a possibility (that the United States will become a new epicenter)."

Moreover, as COVID-19 patients have appeared in Syria and the Gaza Strip of Palestine, where health conditions are poor due to long-standing conflicts, international concerns have also grown.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On this day, India, with a population of 1.35 billion, implemented a nationwide lockdown. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a TV speech, "From midnight today (the 24th), a lockdown will be enforced nationwide for 21 days." He emphasized, "If we do not respond well over the next 21 days, we could regress by 21 years."

Meanwhile, China, where COVID-19 first broke out, announced 47 new confirmed cases on this day. The National Health Commission of China stated that all new confirmed cases were imported from overseas.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.