Number of COVID-19 cases worldwide surpasses 40 million

The number of COVID-19 cases globally surged past 40 million overnight.

It comes as the World Health Organisation warned cases are accelerating in Europe and North America.

The milestone was hit today, according to Johns Hopkins University, which collates reports from around the world.

The actual worldwide tally of COVID-19 cases is likely to be far higher, as testing has been uneven or limited, many people have had no symptoms and some governments have concealed the true number of cases.

To date, more than 1.1 million confirmed virus deaths have been reported, although experts also believe that number is an undercount.

The US, India and Brazil are reporting by far the highest numbers of cases — 8.1 million, 7.5 million and 5.2 million respectively — although the global increase in recent weeks has been driven by a surge in Europe, which has seen over 240,000 confirmed virus deaths in the pandemic so far.

[Source: TVNZ]