Global Covid-19 Cases Top 107.3 Million, Death Toll Crosses 2.35 Million

Washington: The total number of global coronavirus cases has topped 107.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.35 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 107,316,506 and 2,353,620, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 27,284,458 and 471,377, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,858,371.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases are Brazil (9,659,167), the UK (3,996,833), Russia (3,968,228), France (3,444,888), Spain (3,023,601), Italy (2,668,266), Turkey (2,556,837), Germany (2,311,297), Colombia (2,173,347), Argentina (2,001,034), Mexico (1,957,889), Poland (1,563,645), Iran (1,488,981), South Africa (1,482,412), Ukraine (1,297,537), Peru (1,196,778), Indonesia (1,183,555), Czech Republic (1,055,415) and the Netherlands (1,027,023), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of Covid-19 fatalities at 234,850, followed by Mexico (169,760) on the third place and India (155,252) on the fourth.

Meanwhile, the nations with a death toll above 20,000 are the UK (115,068), Italy (92,338), France (80,591), Russia (76,873), Spain (63,704), Germany (63,224), Iran (58,686), Colombia (56,733), Argentina (49,674), South Africa (47,145), Peru (42,626), Poland (39,721), Indonesia (32,167), Turkey (27,093), Ukraine (25,195), Belgium (21,472) and Canada (21,007).

Germany extends Covid-19 lockdown to March 7

Germany will extend lockdown efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic for three more weeks till March 7, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 federal state leaders decided on Wednesday.

According to the decision paper published following a video conference, the restrictions tackling the spread of the virus, which are due on February 14, will extend to March 7, the Xinhua news agency reported.

More restrictive measures will be relaxed only when the seven-day incidence rate is stable at 35, which means that 35 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the decision paper. When the figure is reached, businesses, museums and galleries are able to reopen.

The seven-day incidence rate fell to 68 on Wednesday from the highest point of 198 on December 22, according to Germany's federal disease control agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Germany imposed a partial lockdown from the beginning of November, and then tightened restrictions in the middle of December as new infection numbers soared.

Although the number of daily new infections is dropping from over 30,000 to less than 10,000 right now, Merkel and other officials are worried about the highly infectious virus variants.