Washington: The total number of global COVID-19 Cases has exceeded the 56 million mark, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.34 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University
The University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) in its latest update on Thursday, revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 56,178,674 and 1,348,348, respectively.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 11,525,149 and 250,483, respectively, according to the CSSE.
India comes in second place in terms of cases at 8,912,907, while the country's death toll soared to 130,993.
The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (5,945,849), France (2,115,717), Russia (1,975,629), Spain (1,525,341), the UK (1,434,004), Argentina (1,339,337), Italy (1,272,352), Colombia (1,218,003) and Mexico (1,015,071), the CSSE figures showed.
Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 167,455.
The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (99,528), the UK (53,368), Italy (47,217), France (46,772), Iran (42,941), Spain (42,039), Argentina (36,347), Peru (35,317), Colombia (34,563), Russia (34,068) and South Africa (20,556).
Germany reports 17,561 new Covid cases
Germany has registered 17,561 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the tally to 833,307, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said.
The infection rate in Europe's most populous country continued to decrease as daily new infections declined by almost a thousand cases compared with Wednesday last week, according to the RKI.
Infections in Germany had been rising until last week and a partial month-long lockdown was already enforced in November, Xinhua reported.
A week before the next scheduled conference of the heads of Germany's federal states with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Markus Soeder, minister president of Bavaria, warned that the measures to counter the high Covid-19 infection rate could be extended.
The upcoming meeting should send a "clear signal" about what life would be like in December and beyond the Christmas holidays, said Soeder, stressing that schools in Germany should "remain open as long as possible."
He said there was a need to tighten Covid-19 measures at public hotspots.
NYC schools to shut as Covid-19 positivity rate spikes
New York City has reached the threshold of 3 per cent Covid-19 test positivity rate on a seven-day average, which "means public school buildings will be closed", Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The closures will come into effect from Thursday onwards, Xinhua news agency reported.
"Health and safety have always been our first priority for @NYCSchools students, staff, and families," de Blasio said in a series of tweets on Wednesday.
"We must fight back the second wave of Covid-19. To protect our school communities and our city, beginning tomorrow, all @NYCSchools buildings will be closed, and all learning will proceed remotely, until further notice," he added.
Meanwhile, the Twitter account of NYC Public Schools said that "starting tomorrow, all @NYCschools buildings are closed for in-person learning until further notice".
"All students who were learning in school buildings part of the week will transition to remote learning every day," the tweet added.
New York City's public school system, accommodating more than 1.1 million students, is the largest of its kind in the US.
Currently, New York City's overall coronavirus death toll and caseload have increased to 24,146 and 285,275, respectively.
(With IANS Inputs)