Washington, Oct 29 (IANS): The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 44.4 million, while the deaths have surged to 1,173,270, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Thursday morning, the total caseload and death toll stood at 44,400,318 and 1,173,270, respectively, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 8,855,182 and 227,673, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 7,990,322, while the country's death toll soared to 120,010.

The other top 15 countries with the maximum amount of cases are Brazil (5,468,270), Russia (1,553,028), France (1,280,215), Spain (1,136,503), Argentina (1,130,533), Colombia (1,041,936), the UK (945,378), Mexico (906,863), Peru (892,497), South Africa (719,714), Italy (589,766), Iran (588,648), Chile (505,530), Germany (479,621) and Iraq (463,951), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of fatalities at 158,456.

The countries with a death toll above 10,000 are Mexico (90,309), the UK (45,765), Italy (37,905), France (35,823), Spain (35,466), Peru (34,257), Iran (33,714), Colombia (30,753), Argentina (30,071), Russia (26,752), South Africa (19,111), Chile (14,032), Indonesia (13,612), Ecuador (12,608), Belgium (11,038), Iraq (10,770), Germany (10,218), Canada (10,084) and Turkey (10,027).