--The new grim milestone reached faster than expected has proved that the global epidemic situation remains grave and that the international community should keep vigilant and join hands to fight harder.

-- The Americas are a cause for concern. The United States has by far ranked first on the CSSE global tally, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases and over 125,000 deaths nationwide.

-- Many European and Asian countries have witnessed reassuring signs of the pandemic fight at home and gradually started easing restrictions and reopening their economies with precautions.

A medical worker takes a swab sample at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site in Washington D.C., the United States, May 19, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

by Xinhua writer Guo Yage

BEIJING, June 28 -- Global confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 10 million on Sunday, with nearly 500,000 deaths worldwide, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The new grim milestone, reached faster than expected, has proved that the global epidemic is grave and that the international community should remain vigilant.

Furthermore, as the sweeping pandemic is causing a deep economic contraction, world leaders and experts have stressed the urgency of strengthened coordination to jumpstart a global economic recovery.

GRAVE EPIDEMIC

The momentum of infections worldwide has been accelerating over the past month -- while it took eight days for the global tally to increase from 6 million to 7 million in early June, it only took six days this time for the number to reach 10 million from 9 million.

The Americas are a cause for concern. The United States has by far ranked first on the CSSE global tally, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases and over 125,000 deaths nationwide.