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World surpasses 200 million COVID cases

Aug. 04, 2021 11:36PM EST
 Dan Ackermann

The number of COVID-19 infections worldwide topped 200 million on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Why it matters: The milestone highlights the effect of the highly contagious Delta variant. It took about a year for the world to reach 100 million cases, and only six months to double that, the New York Times reported.

The big picture: Weekly coronavirus cases have surged globally for more than a month, with the most significant increases in the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific regions, according to a report published Tuesday by the World Health Organization.

  • During the past week the highest new daily case numbers were reported in the U.S., India, Indonesia, Brazil and Iran, per CNN.
  • The global COVID-19 death toll hit more than 4.25 million Wednesday, per Johns Hopkins.

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