Leader of an opposition group "Citizens of Poland," Pawel Kacprzak speaks to media ahead of a special session to changes the voting regulations to allow lawmakers remote online participation as a protective measure against the spread of the coronavirus in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, March 26, 2020. (Photo: AP)

NEW YORK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 500,000 as of 2 p.m. US Eastern Time on Thursday (1800 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The fresh figure reached 510,108 cases with 22,993 deaths, the CSSE said.

Outside China, the countries that reported over 10,000 cases included Italy, the United States, Spain, Germany, Iran, France and Switzerland. Italy suffered the most deaths from the disease, which stood at 8,165, according to the CSSE.

It took around two days for the total number to jump from 400,000 to 500,000. Over 170 countries and regions have reported COVID-19 cases so far, the CSSE said.