LONDON — As many as 96.1 million (96,118,791) people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 2,052,259 have died, according to a worldodometer tally. It reported that there have been 68,782,878 cases of global recoveries. Coronavirus is continuing its spread across the world with over 96 million confirmed cases in 218 countries and more than 2.05 million deaths. The virus is surging in many regions and countries that had apparent success in suppressing initial outbreaks are also seeing infections rise again. The US recorded Monday 174,513 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours as the confirmed cases nation-wide crossed 23 million. It also recorded 1,723 virus-related deaths according to Johns Hopkins University. The tally showed that the confirmed cases nationwide reached 23,933,368 and at least 397,574 deaths across US, with the country remaining the world’s worst hit by the pandemic. Furthermore there were a record 124,387 people currently hospitalized for coronavirus in the US, according to COVID Tracking Project. The US ranks first globally in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. India and Brazil have the second and third highest case tallies, recording some 10.5 and 8 million cases respectively. Infections have been reported in more than 218 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. Daily cases have now fallen in many European countries after steep rises in October. Lockdowns and other restrictions were reintroduced in some of the worst-affected regions to help bring numbers down. In Moscow, Russia reported 21,734 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 3,612,800 after it crossed the 3.6 million mark. Russia"s coronavirus crisis center said 586 coronavirus patients had died in the last 24 hours and the overall national coronavirus death toll was at 66,623. They added 23,262 people recovered from the virus, raising the total number of recoveries to 3,002,026. The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Russia on Jan. 31, 2020 when two Chinese citizens in Tyumen (Siberia) and Chita (Russia Far east) tested positive for the virus. In Rome, Italy’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak hit 82,554 on Monday after 377 more people succumbed to the disease over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed. Some 8,824 new cases were logged in the same period to raise the total in one of the world’s worst-affected countries to over 2,400,000, according to government figures. It noted 14,763 people recovered from the virus in the past day, taking the tally to more than 2,700,000 recoveries since the outbreak of the pandemic. In Brussels, total infections of coronavirus cases in Belgium on Tuesday increased to 679,771 with 932 new infections reported by Belgian health authorities. They reported 37 more deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours raising the total death toll to 20,472. In Madrid, the Spanish Health Ministry on Monday reported new 455 deaths from the novel coronavirus and 84,287 more infections in the last 24 hours. The caseload has now surged to 2,300,000 and the death toll to 53,769 since the outbreak of the pandemic. In Amsterdam, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment Monday reported that 4,822 new coronavirus cases were reported in the Netherlands raising the total number of infections to 917,735. Also around 59 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours raising the total deaths from COVID-19 to 13,070, said the institute. In Beijing, China Sunday reported 109 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, 13 of them came from abroad, but did not register any virus-related deaths. The National Health Commission said total registered infections rose to 88,227 and fatalities remained at 4,635. It added 17 people have recovered from the virus and left hospitals in the past 24 hours to reach a total of 82,387. There are still 1,205 patients receiving treatment. In Beijing, China reported more than 100 new COVID-19 cases for a seventh day on Tuesday in the worst domestic outbreak since March last year, with one northeastern province seeing a record daily increase. Mainland China posted 118 new cases on Monday, up from 109 a day earlier, the national health authority said in a statement. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China is 89,454, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,635. Millions of people have been under lockdown in recent days as some northern cities undergo mass testing for the novel coronavirus amid worries that undetected infections could spread quickly during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is just weeks away. In New Delhi, India said on Tuesday that 137 people died due to COVID-19 while 10,064 new cases of the coronavirus were registered in the past 24 hours. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that fatalities due to COVID-19 rose to 152,556 as the total number of positive cases mounted to 10,581,837. According to the ministry, 10,228,753 people recuperated from the pandemic as it spread to 35 states. India has the world"s second-highest caseload, but daily infections have dipped steadily since hitting a peak in September. In Tokyo, Japan reported on Tuesday 5,257 daily cases of novel coronavirus, raising the nation’s total number 337,728, the Health Ministry and local authorities said. The country’s cumulative death toll stood at 4,603. rose by 69 and stood at 4,603. Tokyo added 1,240 new infections, topping 1,000 for the seventh straight day, which brought the total cases in the Japanese capital to 87,914. In an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus variants, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. It had suspended new entries of non-resident foreign nationals from around the world to Japan through Jan. 31. In Seoul, South Korea reported 386 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, Yonhap reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload at 73,115, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Nineteen people died in the past 24 hours raising the death toll to 1,283. Of the newly identified local infections, 95 cases were reported in Seoul and 128 cases in Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. The government extended the current level 2.5 distancing measures in the capital area and Level 2 restrictions in the rest of the country until Jan. 17. South Korea is grappling to contain yet another wave of virus infections with the toughest social distancing rules banning gatherings of five or more people. Indonesia on Tuesday declared registering 10,365 new cases with the novel coronavirus in addition to 308 newly registered deaths. The ministry of health said in a statement the caseload of infections reached 927,380 while mortalities amounted to 26,590. In Malaysia, authorities recorded 3,631 new infection cases with the germ in addition to 14 new deaths. The local ministry of health reported the caseload of the cases hit 165,371 while the fatalities amounted to 619. In the Philippines, the local health department reported 1,357 new cases and 69 deaths with the contagion during the past 24 hours. It put the whole number of the infection cases at 504,084 and the death toll at 9,978. In Latin America, Brazil has more than eight million confirmed cases and the world"s second highest death toll. The country is currently seeing a second surge in infections. Brazil ranks third in terms of infection numbers globally, behind the United States and India. On fatalities, Brazil ranks second behind the US. Argentina, Colombia and Mexico have also recorded more than one million cases and all three countries are still seeing very high numbers of daily confirmed cases. Peru is also approaching the milestone of one million cases, although daily cases are falling. The country has one of the highest deaths rates in the world. Africa has recorded more than three million cases, but the true extent of the pandemic there is not known as testing rates are low. Concern is growing about a South African variant of the disease which is thought to share some similarities with the new UK strain, including being more easily transmissible. South Africa, with more than 1.2 million cases and more than 30,000 deaths, is the worst affected country on the continent. Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Nigeria are the other African countries to officially record more than 100,000 cases. Kenya is the only other country with close to 100,000 cases. In Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population said on Monday that 878 more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 55 patients died over the past 24 hours. The figures took the country’s tally to 157,275 infections and 8,638 deaths the ministry said. Another 498 patients have been discharged from the hospitals. In Rabat, Morocco on Monday confirmed its first imported case of the more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus first discovered in the UK. The variant was first detected in the northern port of Tangier in a Moroccan national returning from Ireland via Marseille. It also reported that coronavirus cases had risen by 473 over the past 24 hours, while 35 more people succumbed to the disease to up the country’s death toll to 7,977. The North African nation’s caseload has reached 460,144 since the contagion came to light, according to the Health Ministry’s data, 761 infected people have recovered which showed the tally of people who have recovered from the virus till date as 435,686. In Tunis, Tunisia’s Ministry of Health on Monday announced 58 deaths from the novel coronavirus and 1,795 more infections in 24 hours. The tally of confirmed deaths and infections rose to 5,750 and 181,885 respectively since the outbreak of the virus. Meanwhile, overall recoveries went up to 131,019. Meanwhile, Mauritania’s Ministry of Health said Monday that 42 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the country’s caseload to 16,081. One more fatality in the last 24 hours pushed the death toll from the viral illness to 403. The report said, 101 patients have been discharged from hospitals, raising the overall recoveries to 14,605 cases. — Agencies