Confirmed worldwide cases of the novel coronavirus broke the 10 million mark on Sunday morning, according to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Nearly 500,000 people have died after contracting the virus, according to Johns Hopkins. As of Sunday morning, there were about 499,000 confirmed deaths linked to the virus.
The vast majority of confirmed cases and death have occurred in the U.S. More than 2.5 million people in the U.S. are confirmed to have contracted the virus — representing one-fourth of all worldwide cases. More than 125,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19.
The milestone comes as the U.S. experiences a new surge in cases. Thursday, Friday and Saturday all saw at least 40,000 new COVID-19 infections — the highest ever recorded since the pandemic began.