Confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide exceeded 90 million Monday, according to experts - nearly 20% of the 500 million people taken ill by a flu outbreak more than a century ago - with infection rates accelerating and Europe and the U.S. epicenters.
COVID infections continue to increase in 88 countries with the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the Reuters Global Tracker. As a consequence, deaths from the virus were 1.9 million as of Monday. At the current infection trajectory, more than 100 million cases are expected by the end of January.
Europe remains the worst-affected area and has the most confirmed cases. There have been 26.2 million reported infections and 591,000 deaths in Europe to date. Europe accounts for 29% of all infections and 31% of the 1.93 million coronavirus-related deaths.
The U.S. is the world's worst hit country. U.S. cases now number more than 22 million since the virus was first recorded in the country in January 2019.
The UK remains the worst-affected country in Europe and it is struggling to tame the spread of a variant. This mutation is being called the British virus. As of Monday, total confirmed cases in the UK were 3.12 million.
Germany last week restricted nonessential travel for residents of badly affected areas for the first time since a lockdown in December failed to reduce infection numbers. It is dealing with 20,773 new infections on average each day along with 1.9 million cumulative infections and 41,266 deaths.
France imposed stricter evening curfews in Marseille after authorities said the variant had been discovered. France has 2.8 million infections and 68,060 related deaths.
The 1918-19 influenza pandemic, popularly called the Spanish flu, was the worst pandemic of the 20th century. An estimated 500 million people worldwide, or one-third of the world's population, were infected. An accurate death toll is unknown but is estimated to range from 50 million to 100 million. Contrary to its name, the Spanish flu is said to have originated in the U.S. and not Spain.
