Marking another grim milestone, the overall number of deaths in the US caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has topped the 700,000 mark on Saturday, according to the latest update by the Johns Hopkins University.
As of the Saturday morning, the death toll stood at 700,258, which is also the highest in the world, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in the update.
California led the country with 69,225 fatalities, followed by Texas (65,529), New York (55,416) and Florida (55,299), the update showed. States with more than 22,000 fatalities also include Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio.
The US remains the country worst hit by the pandemic with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 18 per cent of the infections and almost 15 per cent of the fatalities.
The current caseload stood at 43,617,650. Covid deaths in the country hit half a million on Februaru 22, and topped 600,000 on June 15. It took 113 days for the national death toll to climb from 500,000 to 600,000, and 108 days to soar from 600,000 to 700,000.
UK reports 35K cases
Another 35,577 people in the UK have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 7,841,625, according to official figures. The country also recorded another 127 coronavirus-related deaths, as per the figures released on Friday.
The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK now stands at 136,789. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test, Xinhua news agency reported.
There are currently 6,733 patients in hospital with Covid-19. The data came as the latest government figures revealed England's R number has risen slightly to between 0.8 and 1.1. The R number indicates the average number of people each Covid-positive person goes on to infect.
An R value between 0.8 and one means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 10 other people. The R number has grown in every region of England since last week's figures, apart from London which has remained the same.
Nearly 90 per cent of people aged 16 and over in the UK have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 82 per cent have received both doses, the latest figures showed.
