No letup as global coronavirus cases pass 10m

The coronavirus pandemic has killed half a million people in just over six months, with the toll passing the sombre milestone of 500,000 known deaths on Sunday night.

More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared around the world, half of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally at 0930 GMT Sunday, June 28, based on official sources. This came on the same day that confirmed cases worldwide exceeded 10 million.

"It was mentioned that presently eight states - Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal - contribute 85.5 percent active case load and 87 percent total deaths in India", said a Health Ministry statement on the briefing it gave to the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Covid-19 situation in the country.

European leaders were taking no chances, trying to tamp down new clusters. The two countries accounted for over a third of all new cases in the past week, according to a Reuters tally.

Britain's government is pledging to support local officials in the central English city of Leicester amid reports that a spike in COVID-19 cases could prompt authorities to lock the city down.

In India, densely populated cities have been particularly hard hit.

In total, Latin America has 2,432,558 infections with 110,695 deaths.

Beijing temporarily shut a huge wholesale food market where the virus spread widely earlier this month, re-closed schools and locked down some neighborhoods.

Russia, India, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom are also among the hardest-hit countries in the world.

In Australia's state of Victoria, authorities recorded their highest daily jump in locally acquired Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 75 people testing positive on Monday and only one confirmed to be a returned global traveller.