Global Covid caseload tops 278.8 million

Washington: The global coronavirus caseload has topped 278.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.39 million and vaccinations to over 8.88 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 278,865,910 and 5,392,020, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 8,888,931,499.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 51,962,786 and 816,362, according to the CSSE.

The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India (34,772,626 infections and 479,133 deaths), followed by Brazil (22,234,623 infections and 618,655 deaths).

The other countries with over 5 million cases are the UK (11,958,841), Russia (10,164,951), Turkey (9,268,486), France (9,088,232), Germany (6,982,238), Iran (6,181,784), Spain (5,718,007), Italy (5,567,644), Argentina (5,445,236) and Colombia (5,118,254), the CSSE figures showed.

The nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Mexico (298,508), Russia (296,268), Peru (202,424), the UK (148,324), Indonesia (144,047), Italy (136,386), Iran (131,306), Colombia (129,686), France (123,447), Argentina (117,008) and Germany (110,195).