Global coronavirus death toll tops 700,000
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 700,000 people worldwide since it first emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources at 0655 GMT on Wednesday.
A total of 700,489 deaths have been recorded, out of 18,547,833 cases, of whom 10,889,745 have recovered.
Europe is the hardest hit region with 211,365 fatalities.
Almost half of the deaths reported worldwide were in the four worst hit countries: the United States (156,806), Brazil (95,819), Mexico (48,869) and Britain (46,299).
The number of deaths from COVID-19 has doubled since May 26, and some 100,000 fatalities have been registered in just under three weeks.
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 symptomatic or the most serious cases.
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