Washington, Aug 6 (IANS): The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 18.7 million, while the deaths have increased to over 706,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Thursday morning, the total number of cases stood at 18,727,530 and the fatalities rose to 706,041, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of infections and fatalities at 4,821,287 and 158,171, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil came in the second place with 2,859,073 infections and 97,256 deaths.

In terms of cases, India ranks third (1,908,254), and is followed by Russia (864,948), South Africa (529,877), Mexico (456,100), Peru (439,890), Chile (364,723), Colombia (334,979), Iran (317,483), the UK (307,258), Spain (305,767), Saudi Arabia (282,824), Pakistan (281,136), Italy (248,803), Bangladesh (246,674), Turkey (236,112), France (228,576), Argentina (220,682), Germany (214,113), Iraq (137,556), Canada (120,033), Indonesia (116,871), Philippines (115,980) and Qatar (111,805), the CSSE figures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the Mexico (49,698), UK (46,295), India (39,795), Italy (35,181), France (30,297), Spain (28,499), Peru (20,007), Iran (17,802), Russia (14,465) and Colombia (11,315).