Globally, as of 10:30 am BJT on Wednesday, there have been 76,250,431 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 1,699,230 deaths, reported the World Health Organization.

Benny Yun, owner of Yang Chow restaurant, left, talks to a fellow cafe owner Michael H., in Los Angeles, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (Photo: AP)

Current status (data as of 10:30 am BJT, December 23):

Sources: Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies.

The outbreak has now claimed 328,037 lives in the US, the most of any country, with a total of 18,555,051infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University as of 10:30 am BJT on Wednesday.

India has confirmed a total of 10,075,116 COVID-19 cases, raising the number of deaths to 146,111.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil have increased to 7,318,821 with 188,259 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.

Russia has confirmed 2,878,382 cases of COVID-19, with the number of deaths at 51,274.

France has recorded 2,547,577 confirmed cases and 61,821 deaths.

The UK's confirmed cases have increased to 2,116,608, with the number of deaths at 68,409, according to the JHU virus tracker.

It is followed by Turkey with 18,602 deaths from 2,062,960 infections.

A total of 1,977,370 people in Italy have tested positive for COVID-19, with the death toll at 69,842.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 49,520 lives in Spain, bringing the total number of infections to 1,829,903.

Germany has reported 1,556,708 COVID-19 cases and 27,590 deaths from the virus so far.