Washington (dpa) - According to US experts, more than 400,000 people worldwide have already been infected with the corona virus. The virus recently spread rapidly: the number of known infections had only broken through the 300,000 mark on Saturday.
More than 18,000 people have now died of the novel lung disease Covid-19, scientists from the US University of Johns Hopkins said on Tuesday.
Two thirds of the 409,000 cases reported by Tuesday afternoon (local time) were therefore in six countries: China, Italy, the USA, Spain, Germany and Iran. In the United States, the number of known infections has skyrocketed recently. According to Johns Hopkins, there are now 50,000 cases there. On Saturday, the researchers had still expected around 24,000 known infections.
The website of the US researchers is updated regularly with incoming data and therefore usually shows a higher level than the official figures of the World Health Organization (WHO). In her latest situation report on Monday, she had spoken of 330,000 illnesses and around 14,500 deaths.
Johns Hopkins, Coronavirus website, English
WHO status reports, English