LONDON — Global cases of the novel coronavirus neared seven million on Saturday, as case numbers surge in Brazil and India, according to a Reuters tally.

About 30 percent of those cases, or two million infections, are in the United States, though the fastest growing outbreak is in Latin America, which now accounts for roughly 16 percent of all cases.

Globally, deaths from the novel coronavirus are approaching 400,000.

The United States accounts for about one-quarter of all fatalities but deaths in South America are rapidly rising.

The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in just five months is now equal to the number of people who die annually from malaria, one of the world's most deadly infectious diseases.

The United States has the highest death toll in the world at almost 110,000. Fatalities in Brazil are rising rapidly and the country may overtake the United Kingdom to have the second-largest number of deaths in the world. — WAM