As the number of COVID-19 infections inched closer to the grim 28-million milestone, the global death toll for the coronavirus surpassed 900,000 after thousands of people lost their lives to the virus over Wednesday, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
The researchers at the Baltimore university early Thursday had tallied 903,756 lives lost worldwide to COVID-19 after 6,303 people died in the last 24-hours.
The number of infections also climbed by nearly 300,000 over Wednesday, equalling 27.87 million since the first case was diagnosed in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
Nearly a third of Wednesday's cases were counted in India where health officials tabulated a single-day record of 95,735 infections.
India, the world's second-most populated country with 1.38 billion people, has repeatedly set and then broken daily infection records since late last month as it struggles to contain the virus, which has spread exponentially within its borders since its first cases were diagnosed in late January.
Its ministry of health said nearly half of all its cases are located in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The Asian nation jumped Brazil earlier this week to second in the world in infections, and now with 4.46 million cases, it is closing the gap with the United States, the world's sickest nation with 6.3 million infections.
India also reported 1,172 deaths over Wednesday for a total of 75,062, which puts it third behind Brazil's 128,539 deaths.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
