Coronavirus toll at 1100 GMT Thursday

The worldwide number of fatalities from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 88,981 on Thursday, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT from official sources.

More than 1,519,260 declared cases have been registered in 192 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 312,100 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP 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 the most serious cases.

Italy, which recorded its first death in late February, has had the most fatalities with 17,669 from 139,422 infections.

Spain has recorded 15,238 fatalities from 152,446 infections.

The death toll in the United States is the third highest, at 14.817 from 432,132 infections -- the highest number of cases in the world.

France has reported 10,869 deaths and 112,950 infections followed by Britain with 7,097 deaths and 60,733 cases.

China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 3,335 deaths and 81,865 cases, with 77,279 recoveries.

Since 1900 GMT on Wednesday, Somalia announced its first coronavirus-linked death.

Europe has listed 787,744 cases and 62,402 deaths to date, the US and Canada together have 451,315 cases with 15,273 deaths, Asia 127,727 cases and 4,504 deaths, the Middle East 88,295 cases and 4,354 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 45,523 cases with 1,814 deaths, Africa 11,519 cases with 577 deaths and Oceania 7,146 cases with 57 deaths.