The number of coronavirus cases in the world has surpassed the 8 million mark, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva Wednesday.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

"The world has now recorded more than 8 million cases of COVID-19," he noted.

"In the first two months, 85,000 cases were reported. In the past two months 6 million cases have been reported," the WHO chief recalled, demonstrating that the pandemic scale is growing. In Americas, Africa and South Asia the number of COVID-19 fatalities already topped 435,000, he said, adding that "COVID-19 cases are still rapidly rising."