Coronavirus crisis: confirmed covid-19 cases worldwide passed the one million threshold

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The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed the 1 million threshold overnight as the pandemic swept across the globe.

Johns Hopkins University’s website showed the milestone was hit Thursday afternoon. The count represents confirmed cases, but the true numbers are believed to be much higher.

Nearly 51,500 people have died from the virus.

The United States accounts for about 236,000 of the confirmed cases - more than any other country, according to the tally.

Here in Australia there are 5,224 confirmed cases with 23 deaths.

The grim global milestone came on the same day that figures showed more than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest indication that the pandemic is ravaging global economies.

In Britain, almost 1 million people claimed welfare payments in two weeks.

Here in Australia, just over 1 million people are expected to be added to the national dole queue in coming weeks.

In slightly better news, Italy reported 4,668 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday compared with 4,782 a day earlier, as growth in infections slowed.

The nation had 760 deaths as the number of fatalities rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.

The toll over the past 24 hours compared with 727 on Wednesday, according to figures from the civil protection agency.

With Bloomberg and AP