Coronavirus: Global death toll reaches 500,000

More than 500,000 people around the world died from COVID-19, according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University. The news comes as total case numbers exceed 10 million.

The US remains the world's worst-hit country, with some 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million infections.

For a third consecutive day on Saturday, the number of confirmed US cases leaped by more than 40,000, one of the world's most significant surges.

US Vice President Mike Pence blamed the rising infection rate on expanded testing and criticized the media's continued focus on rising case numbers.

Notably, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China's Hubei province, and the virus has spread to more than 200 countries and territories since then.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as COVID-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.