MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. An overall number of people, who have died across the world after contracting COVID-19, exceeded the figure of 500,100, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which relies on the data of international organizations, federal and local authorities.

The US-based research university reports that as of today the highest number of fatalities caused by the novel coronavirus was registered in the United States (over 125,760 deaths). Brazil comes 2nd with over 57,000 reported COVID-19 fatalities and the United Kingdom is 3rd place with over 43,630 deaths.

A total number of over 10,072,600 people have contracted COVID-19 across the globe, according to the Johns Hopkins University data. The highest number of infections is reported in the United States - 2,544,169. Brazil is ranked second with 1,313,667 cases and Russia is third with over 633,560 confirmed cases.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.