The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Saturday for the second day in a row, with the increase of 259,848 in 24 hours.
The largest increases occurred in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to the daily count.
The previous record for new cases reported by the WHO was 237,743 on Friday. Deaths increased by 7,360, the biggest daily gain since May 10. Deaths have been averaging 44,800 a day in July, slightly above the average of 4,600 a day in June.
Global coronavirus cases topped 14 million on Friday, according to a Reuters count, marking another milestone in the spread of the disease that has killed nearly 600,000 people in seven months. The rise means that 1 million cases were reported in less than 100 hours.
The WHO reported 71,484 new cases in the United States, 45,403 in Brazil, 34,884 in India and 13,373 in South Africa.
Cases in Brazil crossed the 2 million mark on Thursday, doubling in less than a month and adding nearly 40,000 infections a day. A network of state and city responses has not achieved a good result in the absence of a strongly coordinated policy on the part of the federal government.
The United States, which leads with more than 3.7 million cases, has also attempted to stem the outbreak at state and local levels, with limited success.
India became the third country in the world to register more than 1 million infections on Friday, behind only the United States and Brazil. Epidemiologists say India is still months away from reaching a high point.
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