Globally, as of 6:30 pm BJT on Friday, there have been 72,851,747 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 1,643,339 deaths, reported the World Health Organization.

A woman wearing a face mask to curb the spread of coronavirus walks past the Sondheim Theatre in central London, which has had to temporarily stop showing its production of "Les Miserables: The Staged Concert" as the British government have moved London into coronavirus Tier 3 restrictions, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (Photo: AP)

Current status (data as of 7 pm BJT, December 18):

Sources: Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies.

The outbreak has now claimed 315,258 lives in the US, the most of any country, with a total of 17,406,729 infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University as of 6:30 pm BJT on Friday.

India has confirmed a total of 9,979,447 COVID-19 cases, raising the number of deaths to 144,789.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil have increased to 7,110,434 with 184,827deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.

Russia has confirmed 2,764,843 cases of COVID-19, with the number of deaths at 49,170.

France has recorded 2,483,524 confirmed cases and 59,733 deaths.

It is followed by Turkey with 17,364 deaths from 1,955,680 infections.

The UK's confirmed cases have increased to 1,954,268, with the number of deaths at 66,150, according to the JHU virus tracker.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 67,220 lives in Italy, bringing the total number of infections to 1,906,377.

A total of 1,785,421 people in Spain have tested positive for COVID-19, with the death toll at 48,777.

Argentina has reported 1,524,372 COVID-19 cases and 41,534 deaths from the virus so far.