Confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 10 million; second wave looming

The cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide topped the 10 million mark on Sunday. The milestone has been reached about six months after China reported its first Covid-19 cases to the World Health Organization on December 31 last year.

According to international statistics portal Worldometer, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 10,086926 as of 2 p.m. Sunday (Korea time). The number hit 1 million on April 2, 5 million on May 20, and 9 million on June 22, as the pace of transmission is accelerating. Notably, the speed of COVID-19 transmission in Korea of late is poised to advance the timing of the onset of a “second wave,” which was originally predicted this fall at the earliest.

The number of new confirmed cases amounted to 43,581 in the U.S. as of Saturday. It was the highest number since COVID-19 first occurred, as the number hit new daily highs over the past three consecutive days. The cumulative number of confirmed cases came to 2,596,770 in the U.S. Watchers say premature lifting of lockdowns has led to retransmission of the virus. The number of new confirmed cases is breaking records in Brazil (about 1.32 million confirmed cases) and India (about 530,000). The risk is also spreading in Europe and Asia, the centers of epidemics in the initial pace of the pandemic.

The number of new confirmed cases in Korea has been rising and falling repeatedly. However, recent trends suggest clear signs that the pandemic is moving towards a second wave of the pandemic. The number of new confirmed cases stood at 62 as of midnight on Sunday. This number is unusual when considering that the number of new confirmed cases tends to decline during weekends due to a decline in the number of tests conducted. Community transmissions that were occurring in the Greater Seoul region and the Daejeon and Chungcheong regions before North Jeolla Province further spread to Gwangju and South Jeolla Province, with seven new confirmed cases reported during the weekend alone there.


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