Global Covid-19 death toll exceeds 490,000
The Covid-19 coronavirus has killed at least 490,771 people since emerging in China last December, according to a tally from official sources published by AFP at 1900 GMT on Friday.
At least 9,684,490 cases of Covid-19 have already been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 4,806,500 are believed recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the Environment Health and wellbeing Organisation (WHO), probably reflect simply a fraction of some of the number of infections.
Various countries are testing just symptomatic or the many serious cases.
Since 1900 GMT on Thursday, 6,728 new deaths and 176,060 new cases were recorded worldwide.
The countries with the most new deaths were america with 2,494, followed by Brazil with 1,141 fatalities and Mexico with 736.
The United States may be the worst-hit country with 124,732 deaths from 2,444,483 cases. At least 663,652 persons have already been declared recovered.
Following the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 54,971 deaths from 1,228,114 cases, Britain with 43,414 deaths from 309,360 cases, Italy with 34,708 deaths from 239,961 cases, and France with 29,778 deaths from 199,343 cases.
Among the countries hardest hit, Belgium gets the worst death count per head of human population with 84 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, accompanied by Britain with 64, Spain 61, Italy 57 and Sweden 52.
China - excluding Hong Kong and Macau - must date declared 83,462 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 78,439 recoveries.
Europe overall has 195,397 deaths from 2,612,452 cases, america and Canada 133,285 deaths from 2,547,218 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 106,023 deaths from 2,301,516 cases, Asia 31,928 deaths from 1,158,089 cases, Middle East 14,912 deaths from 705,565 cases, Africa 9,093 deaths from 350,609 cases, and Oceania 133 deaths from 9,047 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated in the last 24 hours may well not correspond exactly to the prior day's tallies. - AFP
