As many as 66.3 million (66,310,189) people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,526,234 have died, according to a worldodometer tally. It reported that there have been 45,894, 158 cases of global recoveries. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. The US has recorded more than 14 million cases and nearly 270,000 deaths from coronavirus, the highest figures in the world. Daily cases have been at record levels since early November and there are now almost 100,000 people in hospital, more than in either of the two previous peaks of the pandemic. The outbreak has had a devastating impact on the US economy, although there are now some signs it is recovering. Nearly eight million Americans, many of them children and minorities, have fallen into poverty since May, according to researchers. The US recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths on Wednesday. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, 2,804 new deaths were recorded on Wednesday, nearly the number of people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The previous high was the 2,607 deaths recorded on April 15, at the beginning of the pandemic. India said on Saturday that 512 people succumbed to COVID-19 as 36,652 positive cases were reported from different parts of the country in the last 24 hours. The Ministry of Health and Family welfare said that fatalities due to the coronavirus surged to 139,700 as the total number of positive cases rose to 9,608,211. According to the Health Ministry 9,058,822 people have recovered from the pandemic as it spread to 35 Indian states. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the worst hit India states. In Moscow, Russia announced on Saturday 28,782 new coronavirus cases and 508 deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases rose to 2,43 million and deaths to 42,684 health authorities said. They added that 27,644 people were discharged from hospitals, raising the number of recoveries to 1,916,396. France has recorded more than two million cases; Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK have all recorded more than one million cases. but all their numbers have either stabilized or started to fall in recent days. France on Friday reported 11,221 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 12,696 on Thursday and 12,459 last Friday in a continuation of an almost month-long downward trend, Reuters cited French health authorities as announcing. The total number of infections rose to 2.29 million. France also reported 627 new deaths from coronavirus, including 282 in hospitals, compared to 324 in hospitals on Thursday. Friday's death toll also included 345 new deaths in retirement homes over a three-day period. The number of people in hospital with the virus fell by another 392 to 26,311 while the number of people in intensive care fell by 132 to 3,293. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that in order to end a nationwide lockdown on Dec. 15, the number of daily new infections needs to drop to 5,000 and the number of people in ICU to between 2,500 and 3,000. At the peak of the second wave of the virus, on Nov. 7, France recorded a high of nearly 87,000 new infections over 24 hours. Since then, the number of new cases per day has been on a steady downtrend and the seven-day moving average of new cases stood at 10,348 on Friday, down by 2,074 compared to a week ago. The United Kingdom's total death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 60,000 on Thursday, by the government's preferred measure of deaths within 28 days of a positive test, Reuters reported. Official daily data showed that 414 new deaths were reported, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 60,113. The number of deaths over the past seven days was 3,085, down 5% compared with the previous seven days. The United Kingdom reported 14,879 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the total over the past seven days to 100,857, down 17% compared with the previous seven-day period. The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic stood at 1,674,134. In Brussels, total infections of coronavirus cases in Belgium on Saturday increased to 587,439 with 2,582 new infections reported by Belgian health authorities. They said 109 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours raising the total death toll to 17,142. — Agencies
