Eurostar, London.

Eurostar, London. | Julien de Rosa

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterMallorca-International24/12/2020 08:16
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The United Kingdom now has the second highest number of coronavirus cases per day in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization or WHO.

With almost 37,000 cases a day, the UK is second only to the United States which recorded 183,000 infections on Wednesday.

Russia is third with 27,250 cases, followed by Brazil with 25,019; Germany has 24,740; and India has nearly 24,000.

There's been a big drop in the number of daily cases in Brazil and India, but the situation in the UK is causing alarm because the marked increase in infections coincides with the identification of a new strain of the virus which experts say is 70% more contagious than the original one. The death toll in Britain soared to a record 744 on Wednesday.

In the last week, 1.65 million cases were recorded in the US, 336,000 in Brazil; 222,000 in the UK; 199,000 in Russia; 175,000 in Germany and 166,000 in India.

There are 76.8 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1.7 million fatalities worldwide.