SYDNEY — As many as 10 million people globally may have been infected by the new coronavirus, Australia's chief medical officer said on Friday, with the under-reporting due to a lack of testing in some countries for the highly contagious respiratory disease. A Reuters tally of official data on Friday pegged the number of COVID-19 cases caused by the virus at 1 million, but Australia's chief medical officer said the true size of the global outbreak may be up to 10 times higher. "Worldwide we have passed 1 million infections. But we believe the true number is five or 10 times as much," Brendan Murphy told reporters. Murphy said the mortality rates vary so much around the world that he believes many infections are going undetected.

Source: International New York Times April 03, 2020 05:03 UTC