Paris – The novel coronavirus has killed at least 320,255 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT Tuesday((3 AM Wednesday, March 20, 2020, Philippine time).
At least 4,850,670 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,770,500 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, 4,242 deaths and 90,108 new cases have been recorded, with the most new fatalities reported in the United States with 1,305, Brazil 674 and Britain 545.
The US also has the highest number of deaths overall with 91,179 from 1,519,986 cases. At least 283,178 have been declared recovered.
Britain has the second highest toll with 35,341 deaths from 248,818 cases. It is followed by Italy with 32,169 deaths and 226,699 cases, France with 28,022 deaths and 180,809 infections and Spain with 27,778 fatalities and 232,037 cases.
The country with the highest death rate is Belgium, with 79 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Spain with 59, Italy 53, Britain 52 and France 43.
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 82,960 cases. It has 78,241 recovered cases.
Europe has a total of 168,394 deaths from 1,927,826 cases, the United States and Canada have 97,175 deaths and 1,599,056 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 30,677 deaths and 551,473 cases, Asia has 12,695 deaths and 376,867 cases, the Middle East has 8,320 deaths and 297,381 cases, Africa has 2,866 deaths from 89,659 cases, and Oceania 128 deaths from 8,414 cases.
Corrections by national authorities or late publication of data mean the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day's tallies.