A CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) worker hands a coronavirus test kit to two women, at a walk-up Covid-19 testing site in south Los Angeles, California, December 1, 2020. (Photo: AFP)

The total number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has increased to 1,478,045 with the global confirmed cases reaching 63,758,885 as of 9:30 am BJT on Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Current status (data as of 9:30 am BJT, December 2):

German virologist Alexander Kekule has said that about 99.5 percent of the coronavirus spreading all over the world right now is a kind of variant mutating in north Italy.

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Tuesday that the agency screened roughly 9.5 million passengers during the 10-day Thanksgiving holiday travel period. In a statement, the TSA said the total travel volume during the period ranges from 35 percent to 45 percent of 2019 volumes during the same time frame.

Canada continued seeing sharply increased COVID-19 cases, with a total of 382,812 COVID-19 cases and 12,195 fatalities as of Tuesday evening, according to CTV.

France on Tuesday saw its daily coronavirus cases fall below 10,000 for the third day in a row while coronavirus-related hospitalization maintained a running slowdown, official data showed.

In a worst case scenario of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) second wave hitting Chile, officials estimate the healthcare system may see as many as 9,560 new daily cases of infection, a leading daily said on Tuesday.