Coronavirus global cases reach 3 million around five months after disease first emerged

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.

Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.

Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election

Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

At least three million people have tested positive for coronavirus across the world, according to the Worldometer tracker.

The historic point was reached on Monday morning – roughly five months after the virus first emerged.

Worldometer, the tracking service, uses the latest data from health ministries around the world in real-time.

The new total comes after Russia reported 6,198 more confirmed cases, taking the number of infections in the country to 87,147 on Monday.

The Russian coronavirus crisis response centre said that 50 more deaths of coronavirus patients were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

In the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, Russia surpassed the official figure mainland China – where the virus originated towards the end of last year – which reported the total of 82,830 cases on Monday.

The United States has seen the largest number of infections to date, which stood at more than 987,000 on Monday, according to Worldometer.

European countries have also been badly hit by the virus, with Spain, Italy, France and Germany having the next highest number of cases in the world after the US.

The UK was sixth in the world for total number of infections as of Monday morning, with around 152,800 people having tested positive for Covid-19 in total.

Countries around the world have gone into lockdown in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which gives carriers flu-like symptoms and can develop into pneumonia.

Italy – where around 26,600 patients have died – plans on easing some of its lockdown measures from next week, allowing factories and construction firms to reopen, and people to visit relatives living in the same region.

Children in Spain were let outside on Sunday for the first time in six weeks, as the government said under-14s can now go for an hour-long walk once a day.

Additional reporting by Reuters