Another million coronavirus cases in 4 days brings worldwide total to 14 million

In just four days, another million cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed around the world, bringing the global total to 14 million Friday.

With over 200,000 cases being reported daily over the past week and a half, the pace has quickened even beyond the five-day spans between million-case milestones earlier this month.

The 14-million mark was reached a day after the world hit a new daily record of 252,500 newly-confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Public health data compiled and monitored by the university showed 14,037,021 confirmed cases worldwide as of 9 p.m. ET. The global death toll from the COVID-19 respiratory illness has reached 600,665.

Experts have said the actual number of cases could be up to 10 times higher than what’s been confirmed, due to wide gaps in testing in the early stages of the pandemic.

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The past four days saw Brazil cross 2 million cases, while India became just third country in the world to hit 1 million infections.

The most infected country in the world, the United States, has been breaking daily case records for several consecutive days as nearly all 50 states are now seeing spikes in infections and hospitalizations.

The country has now recorded over 3.6 million cases and nearly 140,000 deaths.

While other highly-infected countries like Russia and even Brazil have begun to level off, new hotspots have developed.

South Africa, once nearly free of the virus, has exploded over the past week to become the sixth most infected country on Earth, with over 330,000 cases.

Colombia just set a new record in daily infections with nearly 21,000 new cases Thursday, while Bangladesh and Indonesia are also seeing surges.

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Australia had to lock down its most populous states after a second wave of cases destroyed its chance of becoming virus-free.

And in Japan, where Tokyo has seen a new explosion of infections, the capital was excluded from a new domestic tourism campaign, prompting fierce blowback against the government.

Even countries that have had relative success in bringing their infections down, like Canada, have seen slight increases this week amid loosened travel restrictions and new economic reopening stages.

Those reopenings are proceeding around the world, including the United Kingdom, which has the third-highest death toll globally behind the U.S. and Brazil.