Global COVID-19 cases near 69 million

The global coronavirus cases have reached near 69 million and 1.57 million deaths, as per the latest update by Johns Hopkins University.

As of 9:58 am IST, the total number of infections globally stand at 68,863,052, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). 

The fatalities due to the Wuhan-originated virus stand at 1,568,959.As many as 44,343,745 patients -- who tested positive for the coronavirus -- have recovered from the infection, the tracker reported adding that India continues to maintain the top spot with over 9.2 million patients recovering from the disease.

The US continues to be the worst-affected from the pandemic reporting over 15,386,564 cases. The US also has the highest number of fatalities in the world from the virus reporting over 289,373 deaths. 

As many as 5,889,896 patients have recovered from the virus across the US.India and Brazil continue to be the second and third most-affected countries in the world reporting over 9.7 million cases and 6.72 million cases respectively. 

Brazil has the second-highest death toll in the world after the US reporting 178,995 deaths across the South American country.The dashboard reported that Russia`s tally stands at 2,518,551 and 44,220 deaths, making it the fourth most-affected country in the world from the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, France is at fifth position reporting 2,377,913 cases and 56,752 deaths.The UK has reported 1,771,545 cases and 62,663 deaths while Italy has reported 1,770,149 cases and 61,739 cases, according to the live dashboard.

According to Xinhua, Spain will abolish value-added tax (VAT) on the sale of COVID-19 vaccines and tests until the end of 2022, in accordance with the newly-reached European Union agreements, a senior official said Wednesday.Canada too has approved Pfizer`s coronavirus vaccine after the UK, for people over the age of 16, opening the possibility of Canadians starting to receive it next week.

Covaxin, a vaccine for COVID-19, will be available in the first quarter of next year, said Suchitra Ella, joint managing director of Bharat Biotech on Wednesday.In the US, for the first time, the daily death toll topped 3,000 deaths from the virus, according to JHU on Thursday.The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11.