The are now more than 5 million cases of coronavirus around the world, with a record 106,000 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization says.

Key points:

-Most of the new cases came from Latin America
-Cases in Brazil are now rising at a daily pace -second only to the US
-1 million new cases are now being reported every two weeks

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two-thirds of the new cases came from just four countries — the US, Russia, Brazil and India.

"We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," Dr Tedros said.

"We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle-income countries."

Latin America overtook the US and Europe in the past week to report the largest portion of new daily cases globally.

It represents a new phase in the spread of the virus, which initially peaked in China in February before large-scale outbreaks in Europe and the United States.

Latin America accounted for around a third of the 91,000 cases reported earlier this week. Europe and the United States each accounted for just over 20 per cent.

A large number of those new cases came from Brazil, which recently surpassed Germany, France and the United Kingdom to become the third-largest outbreak in the world, behind the United States and Russia.

Cases in Brazil are now rising at a daily pace second only to the US.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-21/global-coronavirus-cases-surpass-5-million-infections/12271310