Global coronavirus cases have hit 40 million, just one month after passing 30 million.
The number of new infections around the world continues to grow at an accelerating rate, averaging more than 350,000 per day.
This is up from around 200,000 new daily cases in July.
At a press briefing on Friday, the director general of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that new daily cases may continue to increase with the arrival of flu season in the northern hemisphere.
“As the northern hemisphere winter approaches, cases of Covid-19 are rising globally, especially in Europe where countries are expanding measures to contain it, and many people are understandably weary of the disruption the pandemic is causing to their lives and livelihoods,” he said.
He added: “Last week, the number of cases reported in Europe was almost three times higher than during the first peak in March.”
The majority of new cases come from just five countries: Brazil, France, India, the UK and the US.
Several European countries have announced new containment measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the deadly virus.
Despite the rising number of cases, the number of deaths per day from Covid-19 is yet to rise above the levels seen at the start of the pandemic.
One of the reasons for this is that hospitals are better prepared – however, some in badly hit areas of Europe are beginning to be overwhelmed by the rising cases.
Dr Tedros warned that “many cities” are reporting they will reach their intensive care bed capacity in the coming weeks.
“Every hospital bed occupied by a patient with Covid-19 is a bed that is unavailable for someone else with another condition or disease, such as influenza,” he said.
“The co-circulation of influenza and Covid-19 may present challenges for health systems and health facilities, since both diseases present with many similar symptoms.”
