Shawdesh dEsk:

COVID is continuing its spread across the world, with total cases crossing the 83.9 million mark on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The total caseload across the globe stood at 83,959,994, with 1,827,176 fatalities, as of Saturday morning.

In the US, the death toll stood at 347,787 as of Saturday morning, with 20,128,359 people being infected with the virus, according to JHU data.

The confirmed coronavirus cases in the US topped 20 million on Friday as the discovery of a highly contagious new virus strain in the country increased pressure on the government to speed up the vaccination process, reports Xinhua.

The country, which makes up about 4 percent of the world’s population, now accounts for nearly one-quarter of over 83.8 million cases and 19 percent of 1.8 million deaths reported worldwide, according to the data.

It took 292 days for the US to reach its first 10 million cases, but only 54 more days for the figure to double.

Brazil’s Covid death toll reached 195,411 after 462 more patients died in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said Friday.

Meanwhile, tests detected 24,605 new cases, bringing its total to 7,700,578.

While Brazil celebrated New Year without festivities and fireworks amid the ravaging pandemic, local authorities were still struggling to prevent the public from flocking to beaches on January 1.

In neighboring India, the total cases reached 10,286,709 as of Saturday morning, with 148,994 fatalities