THE World Health Organization reported 183,020 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, June 21, the largest single-day increase of the disease by count.
According to the United Nations health agency, Brazil recorded the most cases with 54,771, followed by the United States at 36,617.
There were a total of 8,708,008 COVID-19 cases with 461,715 fatalities worldwide as of Sunday. Meanwhile, 4,743 deaths were recorded.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, June 20, said 25 million people in the U.S. have been tested, which led to more COVID-19 cases.
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please,’” he said.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Trump’s comment was made in jest and that the president was merely being “tongue-in-cheek.”
Currently, the U.S. has confirmed 2,325,970 cases, with 122,659 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Brazil, meanwhile, has 1,106,470 cases and 51,271 deaths.
Despite being the second country with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has continued to downplay the threat of the virus.
“The pandemic is still accelerating,” said WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world. The politicisation of the pandemic has exacerbated it,” he added.
The WHO noted that China and South Korea both reported new cases on Sunday that could set back the countries’ recoveries.
China recorded an additional 25 cases, while South Korea announced 200 infections that have been traced to employees at a door-to-door sales company in Seoul, and at least 70 other infections are tied to a table tennis club.
The Philippines reported 1,150 new cases. As of writing, there are now 31,825 individuals infected with COVID-19 in the country, with 1,186 deaths and 8,442 recoveries.
