Washington, Sep 21 (IANS): The overall number of global coronavirus cases was nearing the 31 million mark, while the deaths have increased to almost 960,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Monday morning, the total number of cases stood at 30,918,269 and the fatalities rose to 959,332, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 6,799,044 and 199,474, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India is currently in the second place in terms of cases at 5,400,619, while the country's death toll soared to 86,752.

The other top 15 countries with the maximum amount of cases are Brazil (4,544,629), Russia (1,098,958), Peru (762,865), Colombia (758,398), Mexico (697,663), South Africa (661,211), Spain (640,040), Argentina (631,365), France (467,614), Chile (446,274), Iran (422,140), the UK (396,744), Bangladesh (348,918), Saudi Arabia (329,754) and Iraq (319,035), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 136,895.

The countries with a death toll above 10,000 are Mexico (73,493), the UK (41,866), Italy (35,668), Peru (31,369), France (31,257), Spain (30,495), Iran (24,301), Colombia (23,665), Russia (19,349), South Africa (15,953), Argentina (13,053), Chile (12,286) and Ecuador (11,090).