Globally, there have been 30,003,378 cases of the virus, and 943,203 people have died as a result.
The latest data shows that the countries with the highest numbers of cases are the US, India, Brazil, Russia and Peru, in that order. The countries that have suffered the highest numbers of COVID-19 related-deaths are the US, Brazil, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
In the US alone, there have been almost 7 million cases of the virus and almost 200,000 deaths. More than 20 million people across the globe have recovered from the novel coronavirus.
Countries around the world are scrambling to develop a vaccine for the respiratory disease, with Russia becoming the first country to approve such a drug. The vaccine, named Sputnik V, was developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute.
Production of the drug has already started at the Russian company AFK Sistema's Binnopharm pharmaceutical factory, which is expected to produce around 1.5 million doses of the vaccine a year.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the United States could have a vaccine for the virus by the middle of October, if the US Food and Drug Administration approves one. Trump also said the US will have distributed 100 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020.
