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36.5 million cases have been officially diagnosed.

According to a Reuters analysis of more recent country data, infections are rising in 54 countries, including surges in Argentina, Canada and much of Europe.

Infections in the United Kingdom have reached record levels with over 17,000 new cases reported on Thursday.

“We are seeing a definite and sustained increase in cases and admissions to hospital. The trend is clear, and it is very concerning,” said Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England.

France’s new daily Covid-19 infections remained above the record 18,000 threshold for the second day on Thursday with new measures to curb the outbreak expected.

The average number of new infections reported in Belgium has been increasing for seven days straight and Germany reported its biggest daily increase in new cases since April on Thursday.

Spain’s federal government declared a state of alarm in and around Madrid to enforce a partial lockdown, overriding both strong opposition from the regional authorities and a ruling by judges had cancelled the restrictions.

Russia registered a record daily number of new infections, surpassing its previous high from May. The 12,126 new infections bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1,272,238 -- the fourth highest in the world.

While India still leads in the globe in most new cases reported per day, new infections are down 20% from its peak.

India’s total cases rose by 70,496 in the last 24 hours to 6.91 million yesterday morning, data from the health ministry showed. Deaths from Covid-19 infections rose by 964 to 106,490, the ministry said.

In the United States, which has the largest total number of cases and deaths in the world, new infections are edging higher along with the most hospitalized Covid-19 patients since early September.

The US has passed another Covid-19 milestone, with more than 7.6m cases registered on the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Ukraine will open more hospitals to accept patients with the novel coronavirus infection amid a recent spike in new cases, the government said yesterday.