Poonam Singh

Washington: The total global COVID19 caseload has topped 90.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.94 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 90,872,905 and 1,943,943, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 22,612,384 and 376,051, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,466,595, while the country's death toll soared to 151,160.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (8,131,612), Russia (3,389,733), the UK (3,127,643), France (2,844,680), Turkey (2,336,476), Italy (2,289,021), Spain (2,111,782), Germany (1,941,116), Colombia (1,801,903), Argentina (1,730,921), Mexico (1,541,633), Poland (1,390,385), Iran (1,292,614), South Africa (1,246,643), Ukraine (1,154,850) and Peru (1,035,184), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 203,580.

The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (134,368), the UK (82,096), Italy (79,203), France (68,197), Russia (61,389), Iran (56,262), Spain (52,275), Colombia (46,451), Argentina (44,654), Germany (41,266), Peru (38,280), South Africa (33,579), Poland (31,264), Indonesia (24,343), Turkey (22,981), Ukraine (20,719) and Belgium (20,078).

Germany imposes stricter Covid-19 measures nationwide

As Covid-19 incidences and death rates remain on a high level in Germany, stricter contact restrictions would take effect nationwide until at least the end of January, the government announced.

Some of Germany's federal states already introduced over the weekend stricter rules that Chancellor Angela Merkel and the minister-presidents agreed on last week, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Non-essential shops as well as bars, restaurants and leisure facilities remain closed. In addition, German citizens are only allowed to meet with one additional person who is not part of the household, according to the government.

For regions that exceed a 7-day incidence of 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, the travel radius is restricted to 15 kilometers around the place of residence, unless a valid reason for travel can be provided.

The federal and state governments are aiming to bring the 7-day incidence, which increased from around 137 per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday to 167 on Monday, back down to less than 50 so that the country's health system would not be overburdened.

Covid-19 infections in Germany increased by 12,497 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to more than 1.92 million, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The death toll in the country rose by 343 within one day 40,686, it said.

'Most dangerous time' of Covid yet to come in UK: CMO

The "most dangerous time" of the coronavirus pandemic in Britain has yet to come before vaccine rollout has an impact, Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty warned.

The next few weeks will be "the worst" of the pandemic for the National Health Service (NHS), he told the BBC, urging the public to minimize all unnecessary contact with others.

"There's a very high chance that if you meet someone unnecessarily they will have Covid," he said on Monday, noting that any unnecessary contact could be a potential link in a chain of transmission that will lead to a vulnerable person, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Whitty, there were more than 30,000 people in hospitals in England alone with Covid-19, compared to about 18,000 at the peak last April.

"Anybody who is not shocked" by the number of people in hospital "has not understood this at all," he said.

"This is an appalling situation," he added.

Another 54,940 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 3,072,349, according to official figures released Sunday.

(With IANS Inputs_

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