Coronavirus global death toll hits 2,40,000

Paris: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 241,682 people since the outbreak first emerged in China in December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Saturday.

More than 3,398,390 cases were registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,023,900 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

Over the past 24 hours, 6,167 new deaths have been recorded and 94,645 new infections around the world.

The countries with the newest fatalities over the 24-hour period were the United States with 2,518, Britain with 621 and Italy with 474.

The United States has the highest number of total deaths with 65,645 out of 1,121,414 cases. At least 164,015 have been declared recovered.

Italy has the second-highest toll with 28,710 deaths out of 209,328 cases, followed by Britain with 28,131 deaths from 182,260 cases, Spain 25,100 deaths and 216,582 cases and France with 24,760 deaths and 168,396 cases.

The country with the highest proportion of fatalities per population is Belgium, with 67 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Spain with 54, Italy with 47, Britain with 41 and France with 38.

China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 4,633 deaths and 82,875 cases. It has 77,642 recovered cases.

Europe has a total of 142,223 deaths from 1,521,847 cases, the United States and Canada have 69,278 deaths and 1,177,994 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 12,533 deaths and 234,032 cases, Asia has 8,919 deaths and 233,465 cases, the Middle East has 6,879 deaths and 180,721 cases, Africa has 1,730 deaths from 42,229 cases, and Oceania 120 deaths from 8,102 cases.