Globally, as of 6 pm BJT on Friday, there have been 17,064,064 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 668,073 deaths, reported the World Health Organization.

In this July 23, 2020, file photo, health care workers prepare a COVID-19 test sample before a person self-administered a test at the COVID-19 drive-thru testing center at Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues. (Photo: AP)

Current status (data as of 6 pm BJT, July 31):

Sources: Xinhua, Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies.

The outbreak has now claimed 154,478 lives in the US, the most of any country, with a total of 4,595,204 infections, according to a tally by the 1Point3Acres virus tracker as of 6 pm BJT on Friday.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil have increased to 2,610,102 with 91,263 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.

India has confirmed a total of 1,638,321 COVID-19 cases, raising the number of deaths to 35,743.

Russia has confirmed 838,461 cases of COVID-19, with the number of deaths at 13,939.

South Africa has recorded 482,169 confirmed cases and 7,812 deaths.

It is followed by Mexico with 46,000 deaths from 416,179 infections.

Peru has reported 400,683 COVID-19 cases and 18,816 deaths from the virus so far.

A total of 353,536 people in Chile have tested positive for COVID-19, with the death toll at 9,377.

The UK's confirmed cases have increased to 303,913, with the number of deaths at 46,084, according to the JHU virus tracker.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 16,569 lives in Iran, bringing the total number of infections to 301,530.