A man waits for busrd on the 5th Avenue of New York City, the United States, March 19, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

NEW YORK, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 400,000 as of 1:39 p.m. local time on Tuesday (1739 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The fresh figure reached 407,485 cases with 18,227 deaths, the CSSE said.