New Covid-19 infections have been on the rise across the world since late June, topping half a million on Tuesday and Wednesday, increases not seen since May 28, according to an AFP tally.
As of 1400 GMT Thursday based on official figures, 188,347,302 cases have been recorded since the start of the pandemic in December 2019.
Tuesday saw 552,263 new cases and Wednesday there were 541,452 more.
The daily average over the past seven days was 474,100, a 17 percent increase over the previous week.
The rise in cases is attributed mainly to the Delta variant first identified in India and now present in 111 countries and territories, according to the World Health Organization.
Infections have jumped in Europe with a daily average of 115,390 cases, for a 36 percent increase over the previous week.
The Netherlands saw a 512 percent increase, Belgium 103 percent, Greece 97 percent, France 81 percent and Italy 75 percent.
Elsewhere, the United States registered a daily average of 25,340 new cases over the past seven days, for a 72 percent increase over the previous week, though the figure was far down from a high of 258,000 daily cases at the peak of the pandemic in early January.
Asia alone accounted for nearly one-third of the new cases, recording a daily average of 145,840, a 28 percent increase, most of them in India with around 44,630 daily cases, up 15 percent.
Indonesia has seen record infections at a daily average of 41,520, up 45 percent, as well as deaths.
Brazil is second only to India with 42,960 average daily cases over the past seven days, but the figure represents a 15 percent drop from the previous week.
Latin America and the Caribbean region recorded an average of 109,096 new cases for a drop of 11 percent.
