Paris: The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 1,14,539 Monday, according to a tally compiled by this agency from official sources.
More than 18,53,300 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 3,95,000 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by this agency from national authorities and information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
In the United States, now the epicentre of the pandemic, the death toll stands at 22,109 with 557,590 infections. At least 41,831 patients have recovered. Italy is the second worst-hit country with 19,899 deaths from 1,56,363 infections. It is followed by Spain with 17,489 fatalities from 1,69,496 confirmed infections, France with 14,393 deaths and 1,32,591 infections and Britain with 10,612 deaths from 84,270 cases.
China – excluding Hong Kong and Macau – has to date declared 3,341 deaths and 82,160 cases including 108 new ones, with 77,663 recoveries. It reported two new deaths.
Meanwhile workers in Spain’s construction and manufacturing sectors cautiously returned to work Monday as the daily death toll resumed its downward trend and new infections fell to the lowest level in three weeks.
Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, and saw the daily death rate fall for three consecutive days last week, only to rise again Sunday. But Monday it fell again, with 517 deaths in 24 hours, putting the overall death toll at 17,489 with the number of cases now standing at 169,496.
Confirmed cases also rose by 3,477 – the lowest daily figure since March 20 – as Spain began reopening parts of its economy after a two-week ‘economic hibernation’ period.
Although health chiefs say the outbreak in Spain has peaked, they have urged the population to keep observing a strict national lockdown imposed on March 14 to slow the spread of the virus.
AFP
