Coronavirus: WHO reports record daily increase in worldwide COVID-19 cases

There has been a record daily increase in the number of coronavirus cases worldwide.

On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the total number of cases across the globe had risen by 183,020 over 24 hours.

The previous record daily rise was 181,232 on 18 June.

The WHO said the biggest increase was in North and South America, which had a combined 116,041 new cases reported in a single day, more than two-thirds of the global total.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the total number of global COVID-19 cases has passed the 8.9m mark, with more than 468,000 deaths worldwide.

It comes as Germany reported its transmission rate, or R number, had increased dramatically over the weekend, from 1.06 on Friday to 2.88 on Sunday.

This means that for every 100 people with coronavirus, a further 288 are likely to be infected. A figure of less than 1 is needed to contain the virus.

On Monday, South Korea said it is in the midst of a second wave of coronavirus infections, after 90 new imported cases were identified.

In New Zealand, which had previously eliminated coronavirus, two new cases were reported on Monday among people arriving from India and Pakistan.

New Zealand now has nine active cases after having none earlier this month.

The WHO revealed the country with the most new daily coronavirus cases was Brazil, with 54,771, along with another 1,206 deaths in one day.

It was followed by the US, which had 36,617 new cases and 690 reported daily deaths.

India had the third-highest tally, with 15,413 cases and 306 deaths in one day.

By region, South East Asia was the worst affected after the Americas, with 20,248 new cases, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean (18,975), Europe (17,922), Africa (8,464) and the Western Pacific (1,370).

On Monday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the last one million cases were reported in just eight days.

He warned that the pandemic should not politicised, saying: "The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it's the lack of global solidarity and global leadership. We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world."

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