Washington, May 21 (IANS): The total number of global coronavirus cases has increased to nearly 5 million, while the death toll has surged past 328,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Thursday morning, the total number of cases stood at 4,995,712, while the death toll increased to 328,095, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US currently accounts for the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 1,551,668 and 93,431, respectively.

In terms of cases, Russia has the second highest number of infections at 308,705, followed by Brazil (291,579), the UK (249,619), Spain (232,555), Italy (227,364), France (181,700), Germany (178,473), Turkey (152,587) and Iran (126,949), the CSSE figures showed.

Meanwhile, the UK accounted for the second highest COVID-19 deaths worldwide at 35,786.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are Italy (32,330), France (28,135), Spain (27,888) and Brazil (18,859).