The latest coronavirus figures compiled separately by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and the AFP news agency each show that the global death toll from Covid-19 has reached 40,000.

An increasing death toll across both Western Europe and in the US was a major contributor to the somber milestone.

Earlier on Tuesday, Spanish authorities confirmed a jump of 849 in Covid-19 deaths – the largest number of fatalities the country has recorded in a 24-hour period since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, authorities in Germany said the country now has at least 67,051 confirmed cases and a cumulative total of at least 650 deaths from the coronavirus.

Earlier on Tuesday, data from Johns Hopkins showed that the world had crossed the 800,000 mark of confirmed cases, despite reported successes in China, the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, and other countries who have apparently managed to ‘flatten the curve’ of infection.

Also on rt.com World reaches another grim Covid-19 milestone as global cases surpass 800,000

In recent weeks, the US has seen a massive surge in the number of cases and is expected to become the new epicenter of the crisis in the coming days, with over 164,700 confirmed cases and 3,170 deaths at the time of writing.

The one faint glimmer of hope is that some 172,000 people around the world have recovered from the infection.

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