LONDON — Nearly 68.5 million people have been infected with coronavirus, which has claimed more than 1.5 million lives worldwide, according to the latest figures.

The US has been the hardest-hit by the pandemic with nearly 300,000 deaths and 15.5 million infection cases, followed by India and Brazil.

India recorded 31,521 new coronavirus cases, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday. The country has a total of 9.77 million infections but the daily tally has been slowly dropping since hitting a peak in September. Deaths rose by 412, with the total now 141,772.

Russia confirmed 27,927 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours on Thursday, pushing the national tally to 2,569,126. Authorities said 562 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 45,280.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 23,679 to 1,242,203 and the reported death toll rose by 440 to 20,372, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.

Europe is imposing lockdowns to squash the new wave of the coronavirus. Italy reported 634 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, bringing the number to 61,000 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak in February.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. — Agencies