More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared around the world, half of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally Sunday based on official sources.
At least 10,003,942 infections, including 498,779 deaths, have been registered globally.
Europe remains the hardest hit continent with 2,637,546 cases including 195,975 fatalities, while the United States has 2,510,323 infections including 125,539 deaths.
The rate of infections worldwide continues to rise, with one million new cases recorded in just six days.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases and some do not have the capacity to carry out wide-scale testing.
China puts half a million people in lockdown
China imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding the capital to contain a fresh coronavirus cluster on Sunday, as authorities warned the outbreak was still "severe and complicated."
After China largely brought the virus under control, hundreds have been infected in Beijing and cases have emerged in neighboring Hebei province in recent weeks.
Health officials said Sunday that Anxin county—about 150 kilometers from Beijing—will be "fully enclosed and controlled," the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year.
Only one person from each family will be allowed to go out once a day to purchase necessities such as food and medicine, the county's epidemic prevention task force said in a statement.
Limited fans allowed at sports games
South Korea said Sunday it will begin allowing limited numbers of spectators at sports games as it seeks to return to normal after months of strict social distancing rules to combat the coronavirus.
The country endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside China but appears to have brought it broadly under control with an extensive "trace, test and treat" program while never imposing a compulsory lockdown.
Social distancing rules were relaxed in early May and some professional sports—including baseball and soccer—started new seasons albeit behind closed doors.
"We will take phased measures including allowing spectators at sports events," health minister Park Neung-hoo told reporters Sunday, without elaborating.
The move comes despite alarm over a second wave of infections in recent weeks, with the South seeing around 35 to 50 new cases a day, mostly in the Seoul metropolitan area where half of the population lives.