Over 600,000 Covid-19 cases worldwide, toll nears 29,000

The number of coronavirus cases across the world rose to 618,043 as on Saturday evening, with the US leading with 104,865 cases, while the global death toll touched 28,823, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Centre.

Italy, with 9,134 fatalities, comprised nearly one third of the death toll, and was followed by Spain with 5,690 and China's Hubei with 3,177. Iran with 2,517 deaths, and France with 1,995 were the two others in the four-figure category. The next was the UK with 759 deaths.

As regards the total number of cases, the US was followed by Italy (86,498), China (81,996), Spain (72,248), Germany (53,340), Iran (35,408) and France (33,437).

Meanwhile, a total of 135,736 people have recovered from the infection with the bulk -- 62,098 -- of them from China's Hubei, the site of the disease outbreak, followed by 12,285 in Spain, 11,679 in Iran, 10,950 in Italy and 6,658 in Germany.

At roughly the same time on Friday, the death toll had crossed 25,000, with Italy reporting the maximum fatalities at 8,215, followed by Spain at 4,858 and China's Hubei at 3,174.

The total number of cases around the world then were 553,244, with the US leading the tally at 86,012, followed by China at 81,897 and Italy at 80,859. IANS