Shawdesh Desk:

As countries struggle to contain the second outbreak of the pandemic, the global Covid-19 caseload is fast approaching the grim milestone of 180 million.

The total caseload and fatalities from the virus stand at 179,936,032 and 3,898,801, respectively, as of Friday morning, as per Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

So far, 2,759,134, 526 Covid vaccine doses have been administered across the globe, as per the university data.

The US has logged 33,590,429 cases and 603,178 deaths to date, according to the university data. The death toll in the United States is the highest in the world.

India’s Covid-19 tally surpassed 30 million while the death toll topped 393,338 on Thursday, said the federal health ministry.

As many as 51,248 new cases and 965 deaths were registered across the country in the past 24 hours till Wednesday morning.

Brazil on Thursday reported 72,705 new Covid-19 cases, taking the national tally to 18,243,483, the Ministry of Health said.

Some 2,042 people died of Covid during the same period, raising the national death toll to 509,282.

Covid-19 was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China, in late 2019 but the outbreak spread quickly across the globe in the first two-three months of 2020.

It was declared a global pandemic by the WHO on 11 March, 2020.