Washington, Dec 14 (IANS): The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 72.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.61 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 72,201,716 and 1,611,758, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 16,246,771 and 299,163, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 9,857,029, while the country's death toll soared to 143,019.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (6,901,952), Russia (2,629,699), France (2,430,612), the UK (1,854,490), Italy (1,843,712), Turkey (1,836,728), Spain (1,730,575), Argentina (1,498,160), Colombia (1,425,774), Germany (1,338,491), Mexico (1,250,044), Poland (1,135,676) and Iran (1,108,269), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 181,402.

The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (113,953), Italy (64,520), the UK (64,267), France (58,015), Iran (52,196), Spain (47,624), Russia (46,404), Argentina (40,766), Colombia (39,053), Peru (36,544), South Africa (23,276), Poland (22,864) and Germany (21,935).