Shawdesh Desk:

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has crossed 290 million amid rapid surge in Omicorn cases.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 290,065,951 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,443,444 Monday morning.

The US has recorded 55,069,347 cases so far and more than 826,057 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.

The highly transmissible omicron variant has caused Britain’s daily new caseload to soar over Christmas and the New Year, with a new daily high of 189,000 on Dec. 31.

A further 137,583 infections and 73 deaths were added for England and Wales only on Sunday, with numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland to be announced after the holiday weekend, reports AP.

About 1 in 25 people in England — or about 2 million people — had COVID-19 in the week before Christmas, the Office of National Statistics estimated. In London, the figure was 1 in 15.

Overall, the U.K. has reported more than 13.1 million infections and more than 149,000 deaths linked to COVID-19, the second highest death toll in Europe behind Russia.

Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 22,297,427 cases as of Monday and its Covid death toll rose to 619,401.

India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 34,889,132 on Sunday, as 27,553 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, 284 deaths due to the pandemic reported since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 481,770. Meanwhile, India’s Omicron tally has reached 1,525, out of which Maharashtra and Delhi have reported 460 and 351 cases respectively.

The number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations surged to a new high in Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW), while the country battling with its largest outbreaks of COVID-19 fuelled by the Omicron variant.

The NSW, the epicenter of Australia’s current wave of the pandemic, recorded 20,794 new cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours to 8:00 p.m. Sunday, slightly dropping from its peak of 22,577 daily increases recorded on January 1.

According to WHO’s figures, the number of COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide increased by 11% last week compared with the previous week, with nearly 4.99 million newly reported from Dec. 20-26. New cases in Europe — which accounted for more than half of the total — were up 3% while those in the Americas rose 39% and there was a 7% increase in Africa. The global gain followed a gradual increase since October.