The world is going through an education crisis as millions of children remain out of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.

Taking to Twitter, Guterres said, "We are in the middle of an education crisis. 156 million students are still affected by school closures due to COVID-19, and 25 million may never return. An effective pandemic recovery requires investment in teachers, digital learning, and systems fit for the future."

The overall global COVID-19 caseload has topped 198.1 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.22 million and vaccinations soared to over 4.11 billion, according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

In its latest update, Johns Hopkins revealed that the current global caseload, the death toll stood and vaccination tally stood at 198,175,138, 4,221,996 and 4,110,644,112, respectively.