Global coronavirus infection cases top 150 million
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Washington: The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has surpassed 150 million, with India seeing a sharp rise in infections, a Johns Hopkins University database showed on Friday.
The global death toll from COVID-19 has reached 3.15 million as variants of the novel coronavirus are spreading around the world despite progress on vaccination in some developed countries such as the United States.
In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 150,102,206 and 3,161,637, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 32,283,801 and 575,070, respectively, according to the CSSE.
In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 18,376,524 cases.
COVID-19 cases in India last week made up to 38% of the global total, and spread of different variants—not just the B1617 variant that was first detected in the country—appears to be partly fueling the nation's massive surge, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said in its weekly pandemic snapshot.
Regarding the spread of B1617 in India, health officials are reporting different patterns in different regions, with the variant circulating alongside others. Taken together, this may be fueling India's COVID resurgence, with the spread that is faster and bigger than the country's first wave.
The other countries with more than two million confirmed coronavirus cases are Brazil (14,590,678), France (5,653,533), Turkey (4,788,700), Russia (4,742,142), the UK (4,429,849), Italy (4,009,208), Spain (3,514,942), Germany (3,376,918), Argentina (2,954,943), Colombia (2,841,934), Poland (2,785,353), Iran (2,479,805) and Mexico (2,340,934), the CSSE figures showed.
In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 401,186 fatalities.
Nations with a death toll of over 50,000 are Mexico (216,447), India (204,832), the UK (127,759), Italy (120,544), Russia (107,902), France (104,385), Germany (82,657), Spain (78,080), Colombia (73,230), Iran (71,351), Poland (67,073), Argentina (63,508), Peru (60,742) and South Africa (54,331).