The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 196.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.19 million and vaccinations soared to over 3.99 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, the death toll stood and vaccination tally stood at 196,543,425, 4,196,442 and 3,993,341,219, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 34,745,060 and 612,105, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in second place with 31,528,114 cases. In the last 24 hours, India recorded 44,230 fresh Covid-19 cases with 555 deaths.
The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (19,839,369), France (6,142,282), Russia (6,138,958), the UK (5,828,205), Turkey (5,682,630), Argentina (4,905,925), Colombia (4,766,829), Spain (4,422,291), Italy (4,336,906), Iran (3,826,447), Germany (3,772,326) and Indonesia (3,331,206), the CSSE figures showed.
In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 553,179 fatalities. Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (422,662), Mexico (240,001), Peru (196,214), Russia (154,403), the UK (129,803), Italy (128,029), Colombia (120,126), France (111,951) and Argentina (105,113).
Italy reports jump in cases
Italian health authorities have warned that the country's coronavirus infection rate were reaching its highest level since mid-May, while the mortality rate increased after 15 consecutive weeks of declines.
On Thursday, the Health Ministry reported 6,171 new infections, the highest one-day figure since mid-May. But that is still far below the daily peaks of more than 25,000 in March 2020 and more than 40,000 in November 2020.
With 19 Covid fatalities recorded on Thursday, the daily toll has not surpassed 35 registered during the last month. With the new increases, the country's overall caseload and death toll currently stood at 4,336,906 and 128,029.
Till date, the country had completely vaccinated over 31.6 million people, the equivalent of 58.6 per cent of the population aged 12 or older.
