A daily record of more than 893,000 COVID-19 cases has been recorded worldwide, mainly due to a surge of the virus in India, according to an AFP count on Saturday.

The total for cases recorded throughout Friday is based on official figures at 1000 GMT on Saturday. The previous daily high was some 819,000 cases on January 8.

More than a third of the infections occurred in India, which announced 332,730 new cases on Friday and another 346,786 on Saturday, also a record for a single country since the start of the pandemic.

Over the course of a week, more than 5.5 million cases were recorded worldwide, including almost two million in India.

India has also recorded a record 2,624 deaths over the previous 24 hours. The pandemic has killed nearly 190,000 people in total in the country.

Other countries trailing India with the most new infections are the United States (490,000 cases in one week), Brazil (459,000) and Turkey (404,000).

The threshold of 150 million cases worldwide is expected to be reached next week.