WASHINGTON &bull The global tally of confirmed coronavirus cases hit 60 million on Wednesday, with the number of deaths reaching record highs in Russia and Iran while the United States reported  record numbers of hospitalisations.

Officials in the US, the worst affected country in the world, urged Americans to stay home  for the imminent Thanksgiving holiday  as soaring numbers of Covid-19 patients pushed medical professionals to the brink.

The country registered more than 2,400 deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally - the highest daily toll in six months. The total death toll stands at 262,283.The US also reported one million new cases in less than a week, taking its total reported infections to over 12.7 million.

More than 12 per cent of beds in US hospitals were occupied by Covid-19 patients over the weekend, the most since April 9, according to the US government' s latest data. The strain on hospital capacity has prompted New York state to reopen an emergency facility on Staten Island. And in neighbouring New Jersey, the number of patients in intensive care jumped 13 per cent in one day.

The states of Texas and California both broke their daily records of new infections on Wednesday.

Globally, infections stand at about 60 million and deaths at 1.4 million. An analysis of the Reuters data showed the rate of new infections picking up globally. It took just 17 days to go from 50 million cases to 60 million, compared with the 21 days it took to go from 40 million to 50 million. Around 580,000 cases have been reported each day over the past week and around half of all cases since the start of the pandemic were reported over the past 70 days.

Russia and Iran registered record numbers of daily infections and deaths.

Iran' s Health Ministry said there were 13,961 new cases yesterday, a record for the third straight day, as total cases stand at 908,346. The country also reported 482 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 46,689.

Russia yesterday reported 25,487 new infections, bringing the national total to 2.1 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic - the fifth-highest caseload in the world. The health authorities also reported 524 deaths, raising Russia' s total fatalities from Covid-19 to around 38,000.

It was the second time since last Saturday that the country had registered record increases for both cases and deaths. Despite the surge, Russia has not imposed the kind of lockdowns seen in some parts of Europe. But the government said yesterday that it expects to begin to vaccinate the population this year.

In Europe, one million new cases were recorded over just five days, for a total of more than 16 million cases, including 365,000 deaths.

Italy became the second European nation after Britain to reach 50,000 deaths from the pandemic as governments across the continent struggle to impose restrictions on public life while allowing families to celebrate Christmas without further fuelling outbreaks.

While a national lockdown in England is due to end next week, Germany, Spain and Italy have all announced restrictions over the holiday period, including limits on house guests.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Europe' s ski resorts to close this winter to halt the spread of the illness. The country registered a record increase in new virus cases yesterday, bringing the total to just under one million, hours after the government extended a partial shutdown to check the disease' s spread.

The Latin American region has the highest number of reported deaths in the world, representing about 21 per cent of all global cases and over 31 per cent of all global deaths reported.

Brazil last week joined the US and India as the only countries to have recorded more than six million infections.

With 170,769 confirmed fatalities as at yesterday, Brazil has the world' s second-highest death toll.​

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  2,400  Highest daily death toll in six months in the US.
  
  50,000  Italy became the second European nation after Britain to reach this number of deaths.
  
  31%  The Latin American region has the highest number of reported deaths in the world, representing about 21 per cent of all global cases and more than this percentage of all global deaths reported.
  
  6 million  Brazil last week joined the US and India as the only countries to have recorded more than this number of infections.

While India remains the second-worst affected country in the world with 9.2 million cases, it has continued to report a slowdown in new cases in recent weeks. It has reported an average of around 44,000 cases a day over the past week, well down from a peak of just under 97,900 cases in midSeptember.

Asia-Pacific countries such as China, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand have shown how rapid, local and intrusive steps can be effective in extinguishing outbreaks.

In a raw but optimistic address to Americans, US President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday pleaded with the nation to " hang on" and have hope even with the number of coronavirus cases spiking across the country and a hard winter on the horizon.

" Looking back over our history, you see that it' s been in the most difficult circumstances that the soul of our nation has been forged," Mr Biden said, speaking directly to the camera from a stage at the Queen, a historic theatre in Wilmington, Delaware.

He urged Americans to see it as their patriotic duty to fight the pandemic together by taking the proper precautions.

" I know the country has grown weary of the fight," he said. " We need to remember we' re at war with the virus, not with one another, not with each other."

Mr Biden described the coronavirus pandemic as " a nearly yearlong battle" that has " devastated this nation" .

" America is not going to lose this war," he said, as he addressed Americans. " Don' t let yourself surrender to the fatigue."