After the World Health Organization reported the most number of new coronavirus cases recorded in a 24-hour period during the pandemic, global cases crossed the 5 million mark on Thursday.

As more European countries and the United States started easing lockdowns, a total of 5,011,467 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported worldwide.

The global death toll reached 328,368 as per data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, updated at 5 a.m. ET Thursday.

The United States continues to be the worst-affected country with 93,439 deaths and 1,551,853 infections.

Russia, which remained unaffected at the beginning stage of the pandemic, now stands second only to the U.S. in the number of infections – 317,554, and 3,099 deaths.

Brazil, where hospitals are running out of beds in ICUs to accommodate coronavirus patients, has fast risen to third place in infections. The Latin American country reported 291,579 cases and 18,859 deaths so far. Brazil recorded nearly 20,000 new infections in its biggest single-day jump on Wednesday.

On the same day, the Brazilian government authorized anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for treating Covid-19 patients.

The rest of the countries that are in the ten worst-affected list are European: United Kingdom (248,293 infections, 35,704 deaths), Spain (232,555 infections, 27,888 deaths), Italy (227,364 infections, 32,330 deaths), France (179,069 infections, 28,084 deaths), Germany (178,545 infections, 8,172 deaths), and Turkey (152,587 infections, 4,222 deaths).

Wednesday, the WHO said overall, authorities in 214 countries and territories have reported more than 106,000 new cases to the UN health agency. It is the most number of cases recorded in a 24-hour period since the outbreak was first reported in China, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

At a news conference Wednesday, the WHO head said the world still had “a long way to go in this pandemic.”

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