THE worldwide number of fatalities from Covid-19 rose to 69,309 today, according to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus resource centre at 4.52am local time.

More than 1.26 million declared cases have been registered in 191 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 259,300 are now considered recovered.

In some 24 hours, 4,690 new deaths and 75,522 new cases have been recorded around the world.

The countries reporting the most new deaths since Saturday are the United States at 1,082, Spain with 674 and Britain on 621.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP offices 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 only testing cases that require hospitalisation.

Italy, which recorded its first coronavirus death at the end of February, has 15,887 fatalities, with 128,948 infections and 21,815 people recovered. It reported 515 new deaths and 4,316 new cases yesterday.

Spain recorded 12,641 fatalities and 131,646 infections, followed by the US with 9,180 deaths and 324,052 cases—the highest in the world.

France has reported 8,078 deaths and 92,839 infections, followed by Britain (4,934 deaths and 47,806 cases).

China – excluding Hong Kong and Macau – has to date declared 3,329 deaths and 81,669 cases, with 76,964 recoveries.

Europe has listed 664,514 cases and 49,137 deaths to date, the US and Canada together have 339,442 cases with 9,477 deaths, Asia 118,570 cases and 4,192 deaths, the Middle East 76,082 cases and 3,794 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 30,539 cases with 1,053 deaths, Africa 8,921 cases with 431 deaths and Oceania 6,675 cases with 41 deaths. – AFP, April 6, 2020.