CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — The global tally of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 60 million infections on Wednesday, according to data complied by Johns Hopkins University.
Officials in the United States, the worst-affected country in the world, urged Americans to stay home for the Thanksgiving holiday as increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients pushed medical professionals to the brink. This comes just days after the U.S. topped more than 12 million confirmed cases with the latest million only taking six days. The death toll in the U.S. has also surpassed 262,000.
Governments across Europe are struggling to impose restrictions on public life while allowing families to celebrate Christmas without further fueling outbreaks.
While a national lockdown in England is due to end next week, Germany, Spain, and Italy have all announced restrictions over the holiday period, including limits on house guests.
Brazil last week joined the United States and India as the only countries to have recorded more than 6 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins. With more than 170,000 confirmed fatalities, Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll.
While India remains the second-worst affected country in the world with 9.2 million cases, it has continued to report a slowdown in new cases in recent weeks, according to Johns Hopkins.
Asia-Pacific countries such as China, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand had shown how rapid, local and intrusive steps can be effective in extinguishing outbreaks.