GENEVA, April 18. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus cases has increased over the past day globally by more than 85,000, which is more than 2,000 more than the data for the previous day and 9,000 more than two days ago. The number of confirmed deaths increased by more than 6,000 per day, which is 2,000 less than the day before, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a daily newsletter on Saturday.
As of 11:00 Moscow time on April 18, 2,160,207 cases and 146,088 deaths were registered in the world. The number of infected people increased by 85,678 per day, and the number of fatalities - by 6,710. Europe was the most affected both in terms of cases and deaths: 1,086,889 and 97,201, respectively. Over the day, the number of infected increased by 36,018, and deaths - by 3,721.
In the Americas, a total of 784,272 people were infected with the coronavirus, and 35,742 died. In terms of the number of infected per day - 40,665 - this region surpasses Europe, but there are fewer deaths in the last 24 hours - 2,714.
The third position in terms of the number of people infected is occupied by the Western Pacific region, which, in particular, includes China, South Korea, and Japan. As of April 18, 129,256 infected and 5,598 deaths were detected there.
According to the table published in the report, the country most affected by the pandemic was the United States with 665,330 infected, followed by Spain (188,068), Italy (172,434), Germany (137,439), United Kingdom (108,696), France (108,163) , China (84,180), Iran (79,494), Turkey (78,546), and Russia (36,793). Russia entered the top ten countries with the largest number of cases detected. Belgium, which previously occupied the 10th place, is now in 11th place with 36,138 infected.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.