Coronavirus cases top 40M worldwide

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has surpassed 40 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The world hit the new high-water mark amid a “second wave” that has built since August in Europe. Various European government officials have reintroduced restrictions and closures of businesses like bars and restaurants, CNBC noted.

Some European nations have also implemented curfews in response to the second wave.  Slovenia, for example, will impose one for the first time, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. France and Belgium have imposed similar curfews. In May, Slovenia became Europe’s first to declare its epidemic over after the rate of new cases slowed to only a few daily.

Europe has now surpassed the U.S. in the number of new infections per 1 million people, according to CNBC. As of Monday, the U.S. reported a seven-day average of 162 cases per 1 million people, compared to 187 per million in Europe, according to CNBC.

World Health Organization data, meanwhile, puts the total worldwide figure slightly lower, at 39.8 million. This includes 18.7 million cases in the Americas, 8.5 million in Southeast Asia, 7.9 million in Europe and just 1.26 million in Africa.

The U.S., India and Brazil remain the three hardest-hit countries, according to a Reuters analysis. Daily increases are up around 347,000 cases over the past week in each nation, an increase of more than 50,000 per day from the first week of October.

In Europe, according to the Reuters analysis, new case growth is over 150,000 a day. This includes record daily jumps in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Italy, which was the original European epicenter of the virus. Seventeen percent of global cases and almost 22 percent of deaths worldwide are in Europe, according to the news service.