Shawdesh Desk:

The global overall number of coronavirus cases is fast approaching 280 million with the new Covid-19 strain Omicron showing a spike in hospitalization.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count mounted to 279,906,569 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,399,781 on Sunday morning.

The US has recorded 52,280,510 cases so far and more than 816,610 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

In Britain, where the omicron variant has been dominant for days, government requirements have been largely voluntary and milder than those on the continent, but the Conservative government said it could impose new restrictions after Christmas. The U.K. hit a new high of 122,186 daily infections on Friday, but did not report figures for Christmas.

France has recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic and Covid-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month, as the fast-spreading omicron variant complicates the French government’s efforts to stave off a new lockdown.

More than 1,000 people in France with the virus died over the past week, bringing the country’s overall death toll to more than 122,000.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,243,266 cases as of Friday, while its Covid death toll rose to 618,732.

India’s Covid-19 tally rose to 34,786,802 on Sunday, as 6,987 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, as many as 162 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Saturday morning, taking the total death toll to 479,682.

Meanwhile, India’s Omicron tally has reached 422, out of which Maharashtra and Delhi have reported 108 and 79 cases, respectively. Till now 130 patients have been discharged after recovery, as per India’s Health Ministry’s data.

Australia’s New South Wales state reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 cases on Monday and confirmed its first death from the omicron variant.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported 6,324 new infections Monday, a fall of 70 from the record number a day before. There were 524 people in hospitals, including 55 in intensive care.