Global report: July's terrible toll revealed as #coronavirus cases double every six weeks․ #TheGuardian

July was the worst month of the coronavirus pandemic so far for many countries, with more than 8 million cases recorded – nearly as many as the first six months of the outbreak put together, figures have shown.

With global infections passing 18 million on Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned over the weekend that the pandemic continues to accelerate, with cases doubling about every six weeks.

In a report on its progress in handling the pandemic published over the weekend, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote: “By the end of June 2020, WHO had received reports of almost 10 million cases and half a million lives lost. The pandemic continues to accelerate; at the current rate, cases are doubling around every six weeks.”

Five of the past seven days have seen daily increases of more than 250,000 cases – or a million every four days.