There are now over 17.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, with over 673,000 fatalities and more than 10 million recoveries, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. total infections are now nearly at 4.5 million and the death toll exceeds 152,000.Brazil has become the second country in the world with more than 2.6 million confirmed cases. President Jair Bolsonaro's wife and one of his ministers have tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

Brazil, on Friday, reported a daily increase of 52,383 new cases in the past 24 hours and 1,212 COVID-19 deaths, raising the total caseload to 2,662,485 and death toll to 92,475. The country is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, second only to the United States, both in terms of caseload and death toll.

By Thursday, the Chinese mainland had recorded a total of 84,292 cases, with 246 asymptomatic patients under medical observation. The death toll stands at 4,665, including 25 from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and seven from the Taiwan region.

Egypt recorded 321 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total cases registered in the country to 94,078. Thirty-one patients died from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 4,805.

Iran's total number of confirmed cases climbed to 304,204 after the addition of 2,674 new cases overnight, and the death toll also rose to 16,569 after 226 new deaths were recorded. So far, 261,200 patients have been recovered, and 4,041 others remain in critical condition.