The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with Thursday's 150,000 new cases the highest in a single day and nearly half of them in the Americas, Reuters quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying.

“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “The virus is still spreading fast, it is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible.”

More than 8.53 million people have been reported infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 453,834 have died, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.