Worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rises to 154,188

The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 154,188 on Saturday, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

More than 2,251,690 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 497,600 are now considered recovered.

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 the most serious cases.

In the United States, now the epicentre of the pandemic, the death toll stood at 37,079 with 706,779 infections. At least 59,672 patients have recovered. Italy is the next most-affected country with 22,745 deaths and 172,434 confirmed infections.

It is followed by Spain with 20,043 fatalities and 191,726 confirmed infections, France with 18,681 deaths and 147,969 infections and Britain with 14,576 deaths and 108,692 cases.

China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 4,632 deaths and 82,719 cases.

Europe has listed 1,115,555 cases and 97,985 deaths to date, the US and Canada together have 738,706 cases with 38,445 deaths, Asia 158,764 cases with 6,837 deaths, the Middle East 119,462 cases with 5,452 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 91,699 cases with 4,367 deaths, Africa 19,674 cases with 1,016 deaths and Oceania 7,835 cases with 86 deaths.