LONDON • The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 700,000 yesterday, with the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico leading the rise in fatalities.

Nearly 5,900 people are dying every 24 hours from Covid-19 on average, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the past two weeks.

That equates to 247 people per hour, or one person every 15 seconds.

The United States and Latin America are the new epicentres of the pandemic, and both are struggling to curb the spread of the virus.

Brazil is driving a surge in Latin America and the Caribbean, where infections passed five million on Monday.

The coronavirus was initially slower to reach Latin America - home to about 640 million people - than much of the world. But officials have since struggled to control its spread because of the region's poverty and densely packed cities.

More than 100 million people across Latin America and the Caribbean live in slums, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Many have jobs in the informal sector with little in the way of a social safety net and have continued to work throughout the pandemic.

The US, home to around 330 million people, has also been battered by Covid-19 despite being one of the richest nations in the world.

On Monday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert, said states with high Covid-19 case counts should reconsider imposing lockdown restrictions, emphasising the need to get cases to a low baseline before the fall flu season.

Europe remains the hardest-hit region with 211,365 fatalities.

France and the Netherlands imposed stricter mask-wearing rules yesterday.

Toulouse in south-west France announced that mask wearing was compulsory in particularly busy streets and squares from yesterday. Paris and other cities are expected to follow suit soon, the authorities said.

A scientific committee advising the French government warned that the country could lose control of its spread "at any time".