The number of new coronavirus infections in France rose by 22,882 to 2.11 million by late Friday slightly higher than the 21,140 reported on Thursday, while hospital numbers eased again, according to Reuters tally. The Health Ministry also reported 1,138 new deaths from the virus, of which 381 in hospitals and a multi-day batch of 757 in retirement homes, taking the total to 48,265. On Thursday, it had reported 429 hospital deaths but not retirement home deaths. Coronavirus is continuing its spread across the world with more than 57 million (57.574,836) confirmed cases in 190 countries and about 1,373,157 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. North America is currently seeing the steepest rise in new cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health workers and health systems "are being pushed to the breaking point". WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more cases of COVID-19 had been reported in the past four weeks than in the first six months of the pandemic. "Across Europe and North America, hospitals and ICU units are filling up or full," he said. The US has recorded almost 12 million cases and more than 250,000 deaths from coronavirus, the highest figures in the world. Daily cases have been at record levels since early November as numbers continue to rise across the country in a third wave of infections. In Berlin, Germany Health Ministry reported on Saturday 254 deaths due to coronavirus and 22,964 new infections. According to Robert Koch Institute, the death tally went up to 13,884, while total infections amounted to 902,528 cases. In Brussels, total infections of coronavirus cases in Belgium on Saturday increased to 553,680 with 3,416 new cases Belgian health authorities reported. In the last 24 hours 156 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported, raising the total death toll to 15,352. In New Delhi, the Indian authorities said on Saturday that 564 people succumbed to COVID-19 while 46,232 positive cases were registered in the last 24 hours. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that total fatalities due to the pandemic surged to 132,726 while the total number of positive case mounted to 9,050,597. The ministry said 8,478, 124 people recuperated from the pandemic. — Agencies
