GENEVA - The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 500 million, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Globally, as of 8:36 pm CEST (1836 GMT) on Thursday, there have been 500,186,525 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 6,190,349 deaths, reported to WHO, according to the WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard.

The United States has the highest cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths, with more than 79.71 million cases and 979,321 deaths -- both accounting for nearly 16 percent of the world's total.

The United States is followed by India and Brazil, which have recorded cases exceeding 43 million and 30 million respectively, as well as 521,737 and 661,493 deaths.

In terms of WHO regional offices, Europe and the Americas have so far reported more than 209 million and 151 million confirmed cases, as well as 1,964,786 and 2,711,779 deaths, respectively. The two regions combined account for over 72 percent of the world's total in confirmed cases and over 75 percent of deaths.

As the weekly numbers of new COVID-19 cases and deaths have continued to decline according to the WHO statistics, the agency said on Wednesday that the pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern, advising countries to be prepared to scale up COVID-19 response rapidly.