According to the latest figures on Thursday, 18,979,672 have so far been infected with the novel coronavirus globally, with the deaths standing at 711,271 and recoveries amounting to 12,171,222.
United States, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Spain, Colombia, Iran, UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Italy and Bangladesh are respectively the worst-hit countries having maximum cases of coronavirus.
Some 161,601 people are now known to have died in the United States from COVID-19 followed by Brazil with 97,418 and Mexico with 49,698 deaths.
The COVID-19 death toll in India surged to 40,739, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 1,964,536.
The number of Russia's coronavirus deaths has passed 14,490 with the country’s total infections standing at 866,627.
South Africa is the next severely-hit country with 529,877 positive cases and death toll of 9,298.
Iran also announced that some 317,483 patients have so far tested positive with the virus in the country, of whom 274,932 have recovered and a total of 17,802 have lost their lives.
ZZ/