Coronavirus cases top 1 million worldwide

The number of global COVID-19 cases doubled in one week. By Friday morning, countries around the world had confirmed more than 1,040,000 infections and more than 55,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The good news: More than 221,000 people have recovered from the new coronavirus.

How are nations handling the pandemic? On Friday, Britain’s Prince Charles remotely opened a 4,000-bed temporary hospital at a conference center in east London, with more to come. China officially designated health workers killed by the virus as martyrs. The nation will lower the flags to half-staff, sound air raid sirens, and observe three minutes of silence nationwide on Saturday to honor the dead. North Korea insisted it has no COVID-19 cases because it quickly implemented quarantine measures and disinfected all goods entering the country. Experts question the North Korean government’s honesty, but the nation’s relative isolation makes the report possible if not reliable.

Dig deeper: Read June Cheng’s report on the controversy over China’s actual coronavirus death toll.