USA's coronavirus cases surge TENFOLD in a week to 50,000

COVID-19 cases surpassed 400,000 worldwide on Tuesday, while U.S. cases topped 50,000 as the virus spreads more rapidly across the world.

The total number of global cases now stands at 422,629 as of 03:45 a.m. CET on March 25 and 54,823 cases are in the US, according to data compiled by WHO. 

Confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 200,000 last week. In the past three days, more than 100,000 new cases have been identified. The virus has now killed more than 18,800 people around the world, while more than 108,800 people have recovered from COVID-19, according to WHO.

While new infections and deaths from the virus appear to be slowing in Italy, new cases surged Tuesday in Spain, where more than 6,000 new cases and more than 500 new deaths were reported.

However, the number of actual cases in the country is likely significantly higher, officials have acknowledged. Testing in the U.S. has been hampered by delays and a restrictive diagnostic criteria that limited who could get tested. 

Confirmed U.S. cases passed 5,000 just one week ago. On March 1, there were roughly 100 confirmed cases in the U.S.