FILE: Washington D.C., USA - May 12, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. White House, national flag of USA

FILE: USA - Exact Date Unknown (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Various of researcher doing experiments at lab

FILE: Chicago, Illinois, USA - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of medical workers wearing protective suits
4. Medical worker talking to patient

FILE: New York City, USA - April 22, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Various of ambulances on street

FILE: New Delhi, India - October 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Indian national flag, traffic

FILE: New Delhi, India - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Rashtrapati Bhavan, Indian national flag, traffic

FILE: New Delhi, India - October 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Various of pedestrians wearing masks
9. Various of people queuing to enter metro station

FILE: New Delhi, India - Sept 7, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Staff member disinfecting backpack inside metro station
11. Passengers wearing masks on subway train

FILE: Moscow, Russia - 2018 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Russian national flag

FILE: Moscow, Russia - July 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
13. Saint Basil's Cathedral

FILE: Moscow, Russia - Dec 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
14. Various of nurse holding vaccine
15. Ambulance
16. Medical workers in ward

FILE: Paris, France - March 26-27, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
17. National flag of France

Paris, France - Dec 26, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
18. Various of pedestrians

FILE: Paris, France - Sept 29, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
19. Various of local residents waiting outside virus testing site

FILE: Milan, Italy - Oct 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
20. National flag of Italy

Rome, Italy - Dec 27, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
21. Facade of Italian National Institute for Infectious Diseases building
22. Sign reading (Italian) "Italian National Institute for Infectious Diseases"
23. Various of pedestrians wearing masks

FILE: Madrid, Spain - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
24. Spanish national flag
25. Spain Square, statue

Madrid, Spain - Jan 6, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
26. Various of pedestrians on street, traffic
27. Police officers on duty
28. Various of people at open tavern

Frankfurt, Germany - Dec 16, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
29. Various of pedestrians, discount ads posted on shop's window
30. Various of residents passing COVID-19 warning sign

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
31. National flag of Japan
32. Japan's National Diet building

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - April 1, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
33. Sculpture with mask
34. Sign of National Center for Global Health and Medicine
35. Ambulance

Osaka, Japan - Dec 16, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
36. Notice prohibiting visitors
37. Pedestrians crossing street
38. Pedestrians, Christmas decoration

The cumulative total of global COVID-19 cases surpassed 91.06 million, with over 1.97 million fatalities as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The global case count reached 91,061,072, while there have been a total of 1,970,741 deaths worldwide on Thursday, the WHO data revealed.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 23.22 million on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 23,222,781, with a total of 387,103 deaths as of 16:22 Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday, according to the CSSE statistics.

The U.S. remains by far the worst hit nation of the pandemic accounting for the world's most cases and deaths.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 cases have risen to 10,527,683, with 15,590 new infections reported during the past 24 hours, according to the data released by the country's health ministry on Friday.

The death toll reached 151,918 people with 191 new deaths reported during a 24-hour period, said the ministry.

A total of 10,162,738 patients had been discharged from hospitals in India while there are currently 213,027 hospitalized patients.

According to the latest data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), more than 184 million samples have been tested for the COVID-19 virus as of Thursday, including more than 730,000 samples tested on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russia recorded 24,763 more COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 3,495,816, the country's COVID-19 response center said on Thursday.

Russia reported an additional 570 deaths, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 63,940 people, said the center.

There have been more than 2.88 million COVID-19 recoveries in total since the outbreak, according to the center.

Meanwhile, France confirmed 21,228 COVID-19 infections which brought the total number of COVID-19 cases to 2,851,670 infections, health authority's data revealed on Thursday.

The country has reported 69,313 deaths related to the coronavirus, with 282 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex along with the ministers of the economy, health, and education held a press conference on Thursday announcing a minimum 15-day-long curfew from 18:00 to 6:00 the next day that started on Saturday for the country.

Castex also said a nationwide lockdown was not yet necessary but if the epidemic condition continues to worsen, more strict measures will be implemented.

By the end of January, the number of people vaccinated in France will reach one million, said Castex.

Meanwhile, Italy reported 17,246 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,336,279, according to the latest data released by the country's health ministry on Thursday.

Italy has reported 80,848 deaths since the outbreak, with 522 additional deaths reported on Thursday.

In total, 1,694,051 patients had been discharged from hospitals in Italy, with 20,115 recoveries reported on Thursday.

The country's health ministry also said there are still 561,380 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, including 2,557 in severe condition.

Italy completed 160,585 nucleic acid tests on Thursday with a positive rate of 10.7 percent.

According to the latest data released by Spain's health ministry on Thursday, there have been 2,211,967 COVID-19 cases reported in the country with 16,676 infections reported in the past 24 hours.

The country has seen 53,079 deaths from the pandemic, with 774 deaths reported over the past seven days, said the health ministry.

COVID-19 infections in Germany increased by 25,164, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1,978,590 on Thursday, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The death toll in the country rose by 1,244 within one day to 43,881, an official from the RKI said adding that Germany has seen a new high in the number of new deaths reported in a single day.

At a press conference held on Thursday, RKI officials asked the public in Germany to increase awareness of pandemic prevention and said it supports a further tightening of pandemic prevention restrictions within the country.

Officials from the agency also warned about the risk of the mutant strain of the virus spreading.

RKI President Lothar Wieler expressed concerns over the high number of confirmed cases and deaths in Germany, adding that the intensive care unit (ICU) in Germany has never been this overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, Japan confirmed 6,605 new infections on Thursday, bringing its cumulative number of cases to 310,641 as the national death toll reached 4,340 deaths which grew by a daily record of 64 deaths.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency on Wednesday over the COVID-19 epidemic in seven more prefectures including Osaka and Aichi, broadening the scope of the measures amid a resurgence of the epidemic across the country.

Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, reported 1,502 new cases on Thursday.

Together with other three counties around the "capital circle", Tokyo entered a state of emergency on Jan. 8 while the total number of confirmed cases in Tokyo and other three counties account for more than half of the new cases nationwide.

With the rapid increase in confirmed cases, medical resources in Japan's capital area have been diminishing. Data reveals that as of Wednesday, the number of people quarantined at home among existing coronavirus patients in Tokyo has reached 8,837, the highest since the outbreak.

Since December 2020 there have been seven COVID-19 patients quarantined at home that died due to not receiving proper treatment on time.

Tokyo's pandemic response expert team said on Thursday that the surge in cases has exceeded the capacity of Tokyo's medical system, and in a bid to prevent the system from collapsing, it is necessary to effectively reduce new infections, especially severe cases.