According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, global confirmed cases of the disease reached 40,652,097 today, up by 358,051 from the day before. Global confirmed cases often have risen by over 350,000 a day recently. This is above the sustained figure for any period since the spread of COVID-19 began.

Fatal cases have reached 1,122,036, after a one-day gain of 5,519.

The number of cases continues to rise quickly in the northern hemisphere, where winter is quickly approaching. In some nations in Europe, new daily cases have hit records. With most viruses, the rate of spread rises as people move indoors. This has been true of the flu for decades. At the same time, the southern hemisphere has not posted much improvement. Among the hardest-hit nations in the world are Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru.

The United States remains the country with the most confirmed cases at 8,362,181, after a 60,931 increase in a day. COVID-19 fatalities there stand at 224,308 and are likely to reach 225,000 by the end of the week. The rate of the spread has increased sharply in the past two weeks, sparking concern that coronavirus deaths may top 300,000 by year-end. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the spread will not be arrested until the average daily increase drops to under 10,000 per day, which certainly will not happen soon.

U.S. confirmed cases are concentrated in the largest states by population. California has 887,093 and Texas has 879,419. In Florida, there are 760,389 cases, and New York has 491,296. Yet, some of the states where COVID-19 is growing fastest have small populations, most notably North and South Dakota. New York continues to have the largest number of coronavirus deaths by far at 32,998, about 15% of the national total.

Currently ranked second in the world based on confirmed COVID-19 cases, India has 7,652,780. The coronavirus death count there stands at 115,969. Health care experts say that because of the size of the nation geographically, and its relatively primitive health care systems, more than 60 million people actually have been infected, which is about eight times the official number. The Indian Council of Medical Research puts the figure as high as 63 million.

Brazil has a confirmed case count of 7,652,780. New cases recently have risen at a rate of over 20,000 a day. Its COVID-19 deaths number 154,888. As with India, Brazil’s figures are too low. It is nearly impossible to count cases in the nation’s interior. In the poorest parts of the largest cities, packed with impoverished people, the disease is also difficult to track.

Russia has 1,447,335 cases, and fatal cases there number 24,952. Most experts say the death count is far too low to be real. It may be that the government has kept counts down to make it appear it has the pandemic under control. Confirmed cases rose by 32,019 yesterday, among the highest one-day counts in Russia since the pandemic began.

Argentina became the fifth nation to post a total of a million cases or more. The figure for the country hit 1,021,397. Coronavirus deaths there are at 27,175.

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