Washington, July 8 (IANS) The overall number of global COVID-19 cases has increased to more than 11.7 million, while the deaths have soared to over 543,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday morning, the total number of cases stood at 11,798,678 while the fatalities rose to 543,535, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of infections and fatalities with 2,993,759 and 131,455, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil came in the second place with 1,668,589 infections and 66,741 deaths.

In terms of cases, India ranks third (719,665), and is followed by Russia (693,215), Peru (309,278), Chile (301,019), the UK (287,874), Mexico (268,008), Spain (252,130), Iran (245,688), Italy (241,956), Pakistan (234,509), Saudi Arabia (217,108), South Africa (215,855), Turkey (207,897), France (206,072), Germany (198,343), Bangladesh (168,645), Colombia (120,281), Canada (108,023) and Qatar (100,945), the CSSE figures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the UK (44,476), Italy (34,899), Mexico (32,014), France (29,936), Spain (28,392), India (20,160), Iran (11,931), Peru (10,952) and Russia (10,478).

--IANS sdr/