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Washington: The total number of global covid-19 cases has topped 86 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.86 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
The University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) in its latest update on Wednesday morning, revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 86,379,672 and 1,867,585, respectively.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 21,044,020 and 357,156, respectively, according to the CSSE.
India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,356,844, while the country's death toll soared to 149,850.
The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (7,810,400), Russia (3,250,713), the UK (2,782,709), France (2,737,884), Turkey (2,270,101), Italy (2,181,619), Spain (1,982,544), Germany (1,814,565), Colombia (1,702,966), Argentina (1,662,730), Mexico (1,466,490), Poland (1,330,543), Iran (1,255,620), Ukraine (1,117,256), South Africa (1,127,759), and Peru (1,019,475), the CSSE figures showed.
Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 197,732.
The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (128,822), Italy (76,329), the UK (76,428), France (66,417), Russia (58,706), Iran (55,748), Spain (51,430), Colombia (44,428), Argentina (43,785), Peru (37,830), Germany (36,086), South Africa (30,524), Poland (23,502), Indonesia (23,109) and Turkey (21,879).
Covid-19 cases, deaths spike again in France
The number of new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in France spiked by 20,489 in a 24-hour span, and 867 patients succumbed to the disease, 522 of them in retirement homes, according to official data.
The cumulative number of people who have caught the virus in France rose to 26,80,239. The number of coronavirus-linked fatalities stood at 66,282, the Xinhua news agency reported.
On Tuesday, 24,904 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, including 2,625 serious cases in resuscitation units. On Monday, the respective figures were 91 and 41 higher.
France is still far from reducing the number of new Covid-19 infections to 5,000 per day, a target it has set to return gradually to normalcy. Furthermore, the risk of a strong resurgence of the pandemic remains high after the year-end holidays and amid the spread of the more contagious virus strain that forced Britain to impose a third lockdown and many other European countries to toughen rules.
About ten suspected or proven cases of the coronavirus strain, discovered recently in Britain, have so far been detected in France, said French Minister of Health Olivier Veran. "It is a variant that worries us and for which we are deploying very important logistical and diagnostic resources."
"Since early December, we have been on a plateau, which is high. That means we cannot relax the restrictions," he said.
US confirms Covid-19 variant infections in 4 states as vaccine rollout lags
The US has confirmed infections of the Covid-19 variant in four states, as the vaccine rollout nationwide lags behind schedule.
New York State reported on Monday its first case of the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus that was initially discovered in the UK, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County who had no travel history, according to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.
New York is the fourth state in the country that has confirmed infection of the new strain, which has also been found in California, Florida and Colorado.
The variant is thought to be more transmissible but does not appear to make people more ill or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts have said.
While the variant does not appear to cause more severe disease in people who are infected and current vaccines should still work against it, it could lead to more hospitalisations as a result of an increase in cases, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week.
California has confirmed six cases of the variant, all in the southern part of the state. One person in San Diego County has been hospitalised, said Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday.
He said state health officials are carrying out contact tracing efforts.
The CDC implemented a new order in late December which requires air passengers arriving in the United States from the United Kingdom to test negative, no more than 72 hours before departure.
More new strains of the coronavirus are likely to make their way to the US, said Michael Osterholm, member of US President-elect Joe Biden's Covid-19 advisory board, on Tuesday.
"And it's the first of what will likely be a number of these strains that are emerging as we're at this point in the pandemic," he added.
Germany extends, tightens anti-Covid measures to Jan-end
German federal and state governments have agreed to extend the measures against Covid-19 until the end of January, as well as to impose even stricter contact restrictions.
For districts where more than 200 people per 100,000 inhabitants have been newly infected within seven days, the federal states will limit citizens' movement in a radius of 15 km around their residence, unless there is a valid reason, according to the agreement on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
In addition, the agreement requires people to limit their social life and stay at home to the greatest extent. Contact at private meetings will be restricted to just one other person not living in the same household. Previously, the size of private gatherings was limited to no more than two households of five people.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany has already closed all non-essential shops and services. Schools are largely closed and students are taught through distance learning.
Employers are encouraged to allow employees to work from home. These measures were originally planned to last until January 10.
At a press conference after the consultation meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Covid-19 variant which emerged recently presents a "new special situation."
It spreads rapidly and could lead to more infections, for which extra care must be taken, she said.
According to the agreement, the three months ahead will still require considerable patience and discipline on everyone's part in Germany, because winter months favour the virus spread and the vaccination will only have a dampening effect when a larger part of the younger population has also been vaccinated.
Germany launched its vaccination campaign at the end of last month, with priority given to people aged over 80, people in elderly and care facilities, and frontline health care workers.
