TORONTO -- The World Health Organization expects global cases of COVID-19 to reach more than 10 million within a week.
WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization has documented 9.1 million cases of the virus around the world thus far, including more than four million cases last month alone.
"We expect to reach a total of 10 million cases within the next week,” Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
“This is a sober reminder that even as we continue (research and development) into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do everything we can with the tools we have now to suppress transmission and save lives."
According the WHO data, the virus has already claimed more than 470,000 lives worldwide.
But a global tally from Johns Hopkins University suggests the death toll is even higher. As of Wednesday morning, researchers had counted nearly 9.3 million cases worldwide and more than 478,000 deaths.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Canada has recorded more than 102,000 cases of COVID-19, including nearly 8,500 deaths. Ontario and Quebec account for more than 85 per cent of these cases
Case numbers have been levelling off in the last week, however, as new cases have been averaging less than 350 per day.
Cases in the U.S. have surged in the last few weeks as the country reopens its economy. Johns Hopkins reported 34,700 cases in the U.S. on Tuesday, the third-highest single-day total to date.
Florida reported a single-day record of 5,508 new cases on Wednesday, while Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas each reported single-day records on Tuesday.
Cases have also been surging in India and Mexico as both countries recorded record-high new cases on Tuesday.
With files from The Associated Press
