Coronavirus cases soar past 4 million worldwide

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has topped 4 million, with more than 1.3 million cases in the United States alone.

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has surpassed 4 million, the Johns Hopkins coronavirus Resource Center reported.

The global death toll reached 278,135, according to the centre.

The US leads the world case count with 1,305,544, trailed by Spain with 222,857 cases and Italy with 218,268, according to the university.

The latest stats come as Prime Minister Scott Morrison leaves it up to state governments to enforce his three-stage plan to reopen Australia by July.

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The PM unveiled his three-stage plan on Friday, May 8. Picture: Supplied.

A current snapshot of the COVID-19 spread, May 10, 2020. Picture: Johns Hopkins University.

Stage one will see people allowed to have five visitors at home, and 10 people in businesses and public places, it has been announced.

Small restaurants and cafes will be able to reopen, while still abiding to social distancing measures, and retail shopping can resume.

Libraries, community centres, playgrounds and boot camps would also open, and people will be allowed to travel locally and regionally.

Countries around the world are wrestling with how to ease curbs on business and public activity without having the coronavirus come surging back.

South Korea’s president is urging citizens not to lower their guard, but said there’s no reason to be panicked amid worries about a new surge in the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Relatives wearing protective gear tie up the body of a victim who died from COVID-19 before the burial at a graveyard in New Delhi on May 10, 2020. Picture: AFP

President Moon Jae-in made the comments in a speech Sunday as his health authorities detected a slew of new cases linked to nightclubs in Seoul’s Itaewon district in recent days.

China reported its first double-digit rise in new rises cases in 10 days Sunday, saying 14 new cases had been detected, 12 of them domestic infections and two brought from abroad.

Eleven of those domestic cases were in the northeastern province of Jilin and one in Hubei province, whose capital Wuhan is considered to have been the epicentre of the global pandemic.

In Germany, some towns have reinstated lockdown laws, after authorities scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses.

The jump in new cases could fuel concerns over how quickly to lift strict social distancing measures and re-open schools and other public institutions.

– with wires