Confirmed cases of the coronavirus globally crossed 4 million on Friday night with death toll also soaring to 275,783.
According to the latest statistics by worldometers.info, 94,198 fresh cases were recorded in about 210 countries, giving a grand total of 4,007,842 cases.
The world’s hardest-hit United States recorded 27,444 cases and 1,603 deaths on Friday.
The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. is now 1,320,067.
Total recovery is still less than 10 per cent at 222,008.
Spain the second worst-hit in the world in terms of infections has 260,117, although infection and death rates are diminishing.
The country registered 3,262 cases on Friday, just a few more than 3,173 recorded on Thursday.
Spain is loosening up restrictions with death toll reducing consistently. On Thursday, it posted 213 deaths while on Friday the figure was 229.
The UK has 31,241 deaths, the highest fatalities in Europe, second only to the United States in the world.
The U.S. has 78,531 deaths.
While the UK leads Europe in death’s grim statistics, it’s the fourth in the world and third in Europe in terms of infections.
Italy the second in Europe has 217,185 cases, while UK has
211,364.
Russia which suddenly catapulted itself as the new hotspot for the virus is now fourth in Europe and fifth in the world.
As at Friday, it has 187,859 cases and 1,723 deaths.
Here is the situation report in five other hard-hit countries:
France: 176,079 infections, 26,230 deaths
Germany: 170,588 infections, 7,510 deaths
Brazil: 145,328 infections, 9,897 deaths
Turkey: 135,569 infections, 3,689 deaths
Iran: 104,691 infections, 6,541 deaths.
China, where the virus began in December 2019 has now dropped out of top 10 league, with 82,886 infections and 4,633 deaths.