Coronavirus cases hit 43.8m globally

Coronavirus has infected more than 43.8 million people globally as of Wednesday, according to the latest data of John Hopkins University (JHU).

The data shows that the total caseload reached 43,895,968 with 1,165,455 fatalities across the world.

The US, the worst-hit country in the world, has reported 66,784 new confirmed cases and 477 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total cases to 8,774,118. The country’s total death toll reached 226,613 till Wednesday morning.

Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll reached 157,946 after 549 more daily deaths were reported, its Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

The single-day fatalities were almost double the number reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, tests detected 29,787 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of cases since the onset of the epidemic to 5,439,641.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been the worst affected one by the virus, with 38,885 deaths and 1,098,207 cases.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in Asia-Pacific countries as India’s tally is approaching 8 million on Tuesday.

India’s COVID-19 tally reached 7,946,429 even as 36,470 more cases were registered during the past 24 hours, according to the latest data released by its federal Health Ministry.

The death toll surged to 119,502, with 488 deaths recorded till date.

This is the first time in over four months when new cases per day have fallen below 40,000-mark, and the second day when deaths per day fell below 500 in the country.

Still, there are 625,857 active COVID-19 cases in the country. In all 7,201,070 people have been successfully cured.

Europe is an epicenter of COVID-19 right now, but it can bring the transmission under control again, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said recently.

According to Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, 46 percent of all the global cases and nearly one third of all deaths were from the European region last week.

In France, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the country jumped by 523 to 35,541, forcing the government to consider a month-long lockdown nationwide to halt the COVID-19 epidemic resurgence.

The Spanish Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the country registered 18,418 new infections and 267 deaths over the past 24 hours. It is the highest daily COVID- 19 deaths in the second wave.

The total number of infections since the start of the pandemic in Spain reached 1,116,738 and the death toll rose to 35,298.

Russia registered 16,550 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1,547,774, the country’s COVID-19 response center said in a statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 320 new deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 26,589.

Moscow, the country’s worst-hit region, reported 4,312 new cases, taking its tally of infections to 405,352, the response center said.