WASHINGTON — The global death toll from coronavirus surpassed 700,000 on Wednesday as the total number of confirmed cases around the world hits more than 18 million, an increase of more than 1.7 million since last week, according to the latest figures. Almost half of the deaths reported worldwide were in the four worst-hit countries namely the United States with 156,806 followed by Brazil, Mexico, and Britain with 95,819, 48,869, and 46,299 fatalities respectively. Nearly 5,900 people are succumbing to the virus every 24 hours on average, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the past two weeks. That equates to 247 people per hour, or one person every 15 seconds. Of late, India has emerged as one of the new global hotspots of the pandemic, with more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases reported for an eighth straight day, taking the country"s number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began past 1.9 million. India’s health ministry on Wednesday reported a spike of 52,509 new cases and 857 new deaths in the past 24 hours. It said India"s recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has reached 66.31 percent and a record 661,892 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative testing to more than two million. Russia, another hotspot, reported 5,204 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing its nationwide tally to 866,627, the fourth-largest caseload in the world. Russia"s coronavirus task force said 139 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 14,490. The Philippines, another Asian country badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, detected 3,462 new coronavirus infections and nine additional deaths. In a bulletin, the country’s health ministry said total infections had risen to 115,980, putting the tally just behind Indonesia"s 116,871 cases, which is the highest in East Asia. Coronavirus deaths in the Philippines have reached 2,123. — Agencies