Australia's Health Chief Says Actual Number Of COVID-19 Cases Worldwide Could Be 10Mln

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on Friday that the number of COVID-19 cases globally has been under-reported and that the real number could be as high as 10 million people, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on Friday that the number of COVID-19 cases globally has been under-reported and that the real number could be as high as 10 million people, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.

"Worldwide we have passed 1 million infections. But we believe the true number is five or 10 times as much," Murphy said on live tv.

At the same time, the health chief noted that he did not doubt the reliability of data on coronavirus cases in Australia itself.

According to ABC, the number of diagnosed people in Australia exceeds 5,200, which includes 27 patient deaths.

On Thursday, the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded one million with over 51,000 fatalities, according to the data provided by Johns Hopkins University. In total, the disease has been detected in 181 countries and territories, according to the university.