Global Covid caseload tops 270 mn

Washington, Dec 13 (IANS) The global coronavirus caseload has topped 270 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.30 million and vaccinations to over 8.43 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 270,124,782 and 5,305,654, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 8,436,937,751.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 49,919,637 and 797,345, according to the CSSE.

The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India (34,690,510 infections and 475,434 deaths), followed by Brazil (22,177,059 infections and 616,457 deaths).

The other countries with over 5 million cases are the UK (10,881,189), Russia (9,842,021), Turkey (9,042,149), France (8,362,843), Germany (6,530,912), Iran (6,154,813), Argentina (5,358,455), Spain (5,290,190), Italy (5,225,517) and Colombia (5,093,534), the CSSE figures showed.

The nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Mexico (296,620), Russia (283,815), Peru (201,650), the UK (146,896), Indonesia (143,936), Italy (134,831), Iran (130,722), Colombia (129,107), France (121,416), Argentina (116,771) and Germany (105,701).