The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has surpassed 150 million, with India seeing a sharp rise in infections, a Johns Hopkins University tally showed Friday.
The global death toll from COVID-19 has reached 3.15 million as variants of the novel coronavirus are spreading around the world despite progress on vaccination in some developed countries such as the United States.
Still the hardest-hit country in the pandemic, the United States has seen 32 million infections and 570,000 deaths from the disease, followed by India with 18 million cases and Brazil with 14 million cases, according to the U.S. university data.
The three countries alone account for more than 40 percent of the world's coronavirus infections.
According to a World Health Organization tally as of Sunday, the weekly total of new COVID-19 cases hit a record at 5.69 million, with the figure having risen for nine weeks in a row.
India, the country with the world's second-largest population, accounts for 38 percent of the latest weekly infections, with its number of cases soaring by 52 percent from a week before.
The WHO and other international organizations have voiced concern that most developing countries do not have access to coronavirus vaccines.
The total number of COVID-19 infections worldwide exceeded 100 million in late January.
