With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several parts of the world, the global corona cases are now approaching 173 million.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count reached 172,859, 512 while the death toll climbed to 3,718,408 on Sunday morning.

The US, the world’s worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, have recorded 33,057,380 cases with 597,377 fatalities to date, as per the JHU data.

Neighbouring India’s total Covid case count is fast approaching the 29-million mark. The country’s caseload and fatalities stand at 28,694, 879 and 344,082, respectively, as of Sunday morning.

Brazil registered 1,689 more deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 472,531, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.

A total of 66,017 new infections were detected, raising the caseload to 16,907,425, the ministry said.

Brazil has the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, behind the United States and India.