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HEALTH-VIRUS-TOLL

Coronavirus toll at 1000 GMT Saturday

PARIS, April 3, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,839,051 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT Saturday.

At least 130,168,360 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.

These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country. They exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.

On Friday, 10,140 new deaths and 625,046 new cases were recorded worldwide.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Brazil with 2,922 new deaths, followed by United States with 895 and India with 714.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 554,103 deaths from 30,609,693 cases.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 328,206 deaths from 12,910,082 cases; Mexico with 203,854 deaths from 2,247,357 cases; India with 164,110 deaths from 12,392,260 cases; and the United Kingdom with 126,816 deaths from 4,353,668 cases.

The country with the highest death rate compared to its population is Czech Republic with 251 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Hungary with 220, Bosnia-Herzegovina 206, Montenegro 205 and Belgium 199.

Europe overall has 965,895 deaths from 44,397,943 cases; Latin America and the Caribbean 792,351 deaths from 25,107,991 infections; and the United States and Canada 577,110 deaths from 31,598,947 cases.

Asia has reported 274,448 deaths from 18,175,795 cases; the Middle East 114,899 deaths from 6,596,424 cases; Africa 113,351 deaths from 4,253,208 cases; and Oceania 997 deaths from 38,054 cases.

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of tests conducted has greatly increased while testing and reporting techniques have improved, leading to a rise in reported cases.

However, the number of diagnosed cases is only a part of the real total number of infections, as a significant number of less serious or asymptomatic cases always remain undetected.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1648 hrs