30 May 2020

More than 5 million covid-19 cases confirmed worldwide

Our covid-19 coverage so far has focused on Ghana so today we look at that is happening around the world.

5,819,962 cases of covid-19 have been confirmed worldwide. 

The United States has the largest outbreak with 1,716,078 confirmed cases, followed by Brazil with 438,238 and Russia with 387,623 cases. United Kingdom and Spain round out the top 5 with 269,131 and 238,278 cases respectively.

The global death toll is devastating with 362,786 deaths reported (a case fatality rate of 6.23%). The U.S. leads by a wide margin with 101,567 deaths followed by the U.K. with 37,837 deaths then Italy with 33,142. Spain  and France round out the top 5 with 29,037 and 28,608 reported deaths respectively. 


The cases are disproportionately distributed across the globe with Europe and the Americas having the most confirmed cases. The epicenter of the outbreak moved from Wuhan, China where it began to Italy then to the United States. WHO is concerned that the next epicenter will be Brazil where cases have been rapidly rising in the past month.  





Most countries are slowly beginning to ease lockdown restrictions despite fears of a second wave of outbreaks from lifting restrictions. South Korea for instance had to close down schools after reopening due a new cluster of cases. Some U.S states have also reported spikes in cases after the first phase of lifted estrictions. 

*Figures for 30th May, 2020 from the World Health Organization covid-19 dashboard