World coronavirus cases top 5.5 million

More than 5.5 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared in the world, more than two-thirds of them in Europe and the United States, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources as of 0740 GMT on Tuesday.

At least 5,505,307 infections including 346,188 deaths have been recorded, notably in Europe, the hardest-hit continent with 2,047,401 cases and 172,824 deaths, and the United States with 1,662,768 cases and 98,223 deaths. The number of declared cases in the world has doubled in a month, and more than one million new cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the last 11 days.

The number of diagnosed cases however reflects only a fraction of the actual number of infections as many countries test only serious cases or lack testing capacity.