Worldwide coronavirus death toll surpasses 243,000: AFP tally

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 243,637 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

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More than 3,441,540 cases were registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,055,500 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.

The United States has the highest number of total deaths with 66,385 out of 1,133,069 cases. At least 175,382 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 25,264 deaths and 217,466 cases and France with 24,760 deaths and 168,396 cases.

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

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,633 deaths and 82,877 cases. It has 77,713 recovered cases.

Europe has a total of 142,611 deaths from 1,535,203 cases, the United States and Canada have 70,018 deaths and 1,189,649 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 13,156 deaths and 246,581 cases, Asia has 9,061 deaths and 237,852 cases, the Middle East has 6,929 deaths and 181,730 cases, Africa has 1,740 deaths from 42,408 cases, and Oceania 122 deaths from 8,125 cases.