The number of new daily cases around the world flattened out in April, as strict containment measures began to have an effect in many of the countries worst hit in the early stages of the pandemic.
China, Italy, South Korea and Spain all saw their case numbers drop significantly, however infections have since surged in other countries like Brazil, India, Russia and the United States.
Data gathered by OurWorldinData, a non-profit organisation based at Oxford University, reveals that every country in the world with reliable figures is still experiencing new cases.
More than 1 million coronavirus cases in the last five days have taken the total number globally above 15 million, as new daily cases continue to accelerate.
An average 227,000 cases around the world have been reported each day over the last week – rising from around 177,000 cases per day at the start of July.
After taking more than three months to reach 1 million total cases around the world, the increasing infection rate means it has now taken just over three weeks to go from 10 to 15 million confirmed cases.
Even New Zealand, where early intervention measures saw active cases drop to zero last month, has seen several confirmed cases of the deadly virus over the last week due to infected people entering the country.
In several of the worst affected countries – including the United States, India and South Africa – the number of new daily cases is still on the rise.
The United States accounts for more than a quarter of the 15 million confirmed Covid-19 cases around the world and continues to account for the highest number of new cases.
New daily cases are increasing at an even faster rate in India, where more than 1.2m people have tested positive for the deadly virus.
The latest data reveals a similar trend in South Africa, which is now in the top five worst-hit countries in terms of total cases.
These three countries alone – India, South Africa and the US – account for more than half of all new daily cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Several studies have suggested that the pandemic is far more widespread than official figures suggest.
Research in Spain and the US both found that confirmed cases are only a small fraction of the actual number of infections due to asymptomatic cases and people not getting tested.
If this is the case on a global scale, then roughly 150 million people may have already been infected.
