Geneva: The number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide hit about 150,000 on Thursday, the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against complacency in efforts to contain COVID-19.
“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” he said during a news conference in Geneva. “Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies.”
Tedros said nearly half of the new cases reported Thursday came from the Americas.
COVID-19 has sickened at least 8.57 million people across the globe and killed more than 450,000, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University. Some 4.2 million people have recovered from the disease.
The United States has been the hardest hit country, with 2.2 million confirmed cases and more than 118,000 deaths. Nearly 600,000 have recovered in the country.
