Washington, Jan 21 (IANS): The total number of global coronavirus cases has topped 96.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.07 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 96,823,968 and 2,073,866, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 24,432,807 and 406,001, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,595,660, while the country's death toll soared to 152,718.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (8,638,249), Russia (3,595,136), the UK (3,515,796), France (3,023,661), Italy (2,414,166), Spain (2,412,318), Turkey (2,406,216), Germany (2,090,195), Colombia (1,956,979), Argentina (1,831,681), Mexico (1,688,944), Poland (1,450,747), South Africa (1,369,426), Iran (1,348,316), Ukraine (1,210,854) and Peru (1,073,214), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 212,831.

The countries with a death toll above 20,000 are Mexico (144,371), the UK (93,469), Italy (83,681), France (71,792), Russia (66,214), Iran (57,057), Spain (54,637), Colombia (49,792), Germany (49,499), Argentina (46,216), Peru (39,044), South Africa (38,854), Poland (34,141), Indonesia (26,857), Turkey (24,487), Ukraine (22,264) and Belgium (20,554).