Washington, Dec 26 (IANS): The global coronavirus caseload has topped 279.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.39 million and vaccinations to over 8.92 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 279,454,484 and 5,396,449, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 8,922,657,773.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 52,092,894 and 816,463, according to the CSSE.

The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India (34,779,815 infections and 479,520 deaths), followed by Brazil (22,238,369 infections and 618,686 deaths).

The other countries with over 5 million cases are the UK (11,958,928), Russia (10,189,722), Turkey (9,268,486), France (9,192,843), Germany (6,999,476), Iran (6,182,905), Spain (5,718,007), Italy (5,622,431), Argentina (5,452,419) and Colombia (5,121,668), the CSSE figures showed.

The nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Mexico (298,670), Russia (297,223), Peru (202,424), the UK (148,324), Indonesia (144,053), Italy (136,530), Iran (131,348), Colombia (129,729), France (123,531), Argentina (117,020) and Germany (110,317).