More than 10.64 million of infected persons have recovered; Expert warns COVID-19 'extraordinarily widespread' in US.

More than 18 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus as of Monday. Almost 10.64 million patients have recovered and while almost 688,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States is in a new phase of the novel coronavirus outbreak with infections "extraordinarily widespread" in rural areas as well as cities, a White House coronavirus experts said, as cases hit 4.68 million with more than 155,000 deaths reported.

Despite fears of the spread of coronavirus, parliamentary elections will go ahead in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hoping to tighten his hold on the nation's politics.

Millions of COVID-19 tests able to detect the virus within 90 minutes will be rolled out in the UK to boost capacity in the coming months, the country's health minister has announced, while cases nationwide surpassed 306,000, with more than 46,000 deaths.

Brazil has recorded 25,800 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 541 deaths, bringing the total to more than 2.73 million and more than 94,000 deaths as of the end of Sunday, according to the country's health ministry.

The number of coronavirus cases recorded around the world is approaching 18 million.

Source: Aljazeera