The number of novel coronavirus cases around the world continues to skyrocket. By Saturday morning, the number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases globally neared 600,000 (598,245).

It was just Thursday that the globe reached 500,000 cases, which was double the number of coronavirus cases from the week before.

The US surpassed 100,000 diagnosed coronavirus cases Friday night, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 1,711 deaths in the country.

Italy stands after the US with 86,498 cases. But the European country comes the first one with number of deaths (9,134 deaths).

China comes third with number of cases (81,340). The country where the novel coronavirus originally appeared, recorded so far 3,292 deaths. Spain also has been struggling to combat the pandemic, recording more than 64,000 infections and nearly 5,000 deaths.

Germany registered at least 50,000 cases so far and nearly 350 deaths, while France recorded nearly 33,000 infections and 1995 deaths.

Iran comes seventh with number of infections (32,332), and fourth with number of deaths (2,378).

27,762 deaths were recorded worldwide, while at least 131,000 people have recovered from the virus during this pandemic.

Source: Agencies