Global COVID-19 cases top 500,000; death toll crosses 22,000

The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 500,000 as of Thursday noon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University in the US. The fresh figure reached 510,108 cases with 22,993 deaths.

Outside China, the countries that reported over 10,000 cases included Italy, the US, Spain, Germany, Iran, France and Switzerland. Italy suffered the most deaths from the disease, which stood at 8,165, according to the CSSE, Xinhua reported.