701,112 people have so far died from the Coronavirus according to an AFP tally, with the United States, Brazil, India, and Mexico leading the rise in fatalities.
Nearly 5,900 people are dying every 24 hours on an average, as per calculations based on data from the past two weeks. There are over 18.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world.
Hong Kong reported 95 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, of which 91 were locally transmitted, as authorities tried to contain the virus, which has seen a resurgence in the global financial hub over the past month.
Around 3,800 people have been infected in Hong Kong since late January, 44 of whom have died. On Wednesday, 85 new cases were reported.
Russian authorities reported 5,267 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its national tally to 871,894, the fourth largest in the world.
The official death toll rose to 14,606 after officials said 116 people had died across the country in the last 24 hours.
India has recorded the biggest single-day fatalities of 904 in the past 24 hours as fresh coronavirus infections surged by another 56,282 cases to reach nearly two million.
The Health Ministry said the total fatalities touched 40,699. India has recorded 20,000 deaths in the past 30 days.
The US reported 1,262 more COVID-19 fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to data by the Johns Hopkins University, figures that take its total death toll to 157,930.
It also added 53,158 new infections and remained the worst-hit country in the world, with a total caseload of 4,818,328.
President Trump nonetheless remained optimistic, saying “This thing’s going away. It will go away, like things go away, and my view is that schools should be open.”
