New Delhi, July 27: With over 16 million cases worldwide, the transmission of COVID-19 continues in most parts of the world at an alarming pace. The disease has already claimed more than 650,000 lives, and the surge in fatality count is unlikely to recede before the first vaccine is rolled out. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday declared the pandemic as the "most severe global health emergency".

In the last six weeks, the overall count of cases nearly doubled. An addition of over 1 million infections was made to the total tally within the past four days. The reason behind the sharp spike is considered to be the transmission of disease into smaller towns and villages in most countries across the world. COVID-19 Spike in Africa Alarming, WHO Says 'Very Concerned' Over Acceleration of Disease in The Continent.

In other words, COVID-19 is no longer a threat looming largely on the urban populace. The pace of infection has also spiked alarmingly in Africa, the continent with one of the densest population. Lack of sanitation facilities and health infrastructure in several countries of Africa may further exacerbate the crisis.

List of 10 Countries With Maximum Number of Cases

Country Total

Cases

 New

Cases

 Total

Deaths

 New

Deaths

 Total

Recovered

 Active

Cases
USA 4,388,237 +16,398 149,963 +115 2,090,948 2,147,326
Brazil 2,419,901 87,052 1,634,274 698,575
India 1,479,263 +43,244 33,436 +624 950,347 495,480
Russia 818,120 +5,635 13,354 +85 603,329 201,437
South Africa 445,433 6,769 265,077 173,587
Mexico 390,516 +5,480 43,680 +306 251,505 95,331
Peru 384,797 18,229 267,850 98,718
Chile 347,923 +2,133 9,187 +75 319,954 18,782
Spain 319,501 28,432 N/A N/A
UK 300,111 +685 45,759 +7 N/A N/A

While the United States tops the list with over 4.3 million cases, it is followed by Brazil and India, where the overall count has crossed 2.4 and 1.4 millions, respectively, as per the above data which was sourced from tracker Worldometers.

Other countries among the list of 10 worst-affected are Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Spain and the UK. The WHO, in its press briefing today, reiterated the call to maximise social distancing and mandatorily use face-masks to control the rate of transmission.

"Countries and communities that have followed this advice carefully and consistently have done well, either in preventing large-scale outbreaks – like Cambodia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Thailand, Viet Nam, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean – or in bringing large outbreaks under control – like Canada, China, Germany and the Republic of Korea," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 27, 2020 09:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).