COVID-19 Cases Worldwide Surpass 20.7 Million, Toll Over 752000

Washington: The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 20.7 million, while the deaths have increased to over 752,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As of Friday morning, the total number of cases stood at 20,764,220 and the fatalities rose to 752,893, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of infections and fatalities at 5,248,172 and 167,092, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil came in second place with 3,164,785 infections and 104,201 deaths.

In terms of cases, India ranks third (2,396,637), and is followed by Russia (905,762), South Africa (572,865), Mexico (505,751), Peru (498,555), Colombia (422,519), Chile (380,034), Spain (337,334), Iran (336,324), the UK (315,583), Saudi Arabia (294,519), Pakistan (286,674), Argentina (276,072), Bangladesh (269,115), Italy (252,235), Turkey (245,635), France (244,096), Germany (222,281), Iraq (164,277), Philippines (147,526), Indonesia (132,816), Canada (123,180), Qatar (114,281) and Kazakhstan (101,372), the CSSE figures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the Mexico (55,293), India (47,033), UK (46,791), Italy (35,231), France (30,392), Spain (28,605), Peru (21,713), Iran (19,162), Russia (15,353), Colombia (14,145), South Africa (11,270) and Chile (10,299).

COVID-19 re-infection not confirmed: WHO expert

A senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that although there are some cases suggesting that an individual may have been re-infected with COVID-19, it's still not confirmed.

Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 response at the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told a virtual press conference on Thursday that some people can have PCR (polymerase chain reaction) positivity for many weeks, not just days, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they are infectious for that long, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the WHO expert, false positivity or false negativity may also lead to the result that an individual is tested positive again, but that should not be viewed as re-infection.

"What we ideally would like is to look at sequencing. If the virus can be isolated, if sequencing can be done, so we can look and see if somebody has been re-infected," she said.

(IANS)