Globally, as of 7 pm BJT on Thursday, there have been 72,556,942 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 1,637,155 deaths, reported the World Health Organization.

A Russian medical worker finishes the procedure after administering a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. (Photo: AP)

Current status (data as of 7 pm BJT, December 17):

Sources: Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies.

The outbreak has now claimed 312,054 lives in the US, the most of any country, with a total of 17,166,907 infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University as of 7 pm BJT on Thursday.

India has confirmed a total of 9,956,557 COVID-19 cases, raising the number of deaths to 144,451.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil have increased to 7,040,608 with 183,735 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.

Russia has confirmed 2,736,727 cases of COVID-19, with the number of deaths at 48,568.

France has recorded 2,465,126 confirmed cases and 59,472 deaths.

It is followed by Turkey with 17,121 deaths from 1,928,165 infections.

The UK's confirmed cases have increased to 1,918,736, with the number of deaths at 65,618, according to the JHU virus tracker.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 66,537 lives in Italy, bringing the total number of infections to 1,888,144.

A total of 1,773,290 people in Spain have tested positive for COVID-19, with the death toll at 48,596.

Argentina has reported 1,517,046 COVID-19 cases and 41,365 deaths from the virus so far.