The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 120,013 on Tuesday, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT from official sources.

More than 1,923,390 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 411,500 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 stands at 23,649 with 582,594 infections. At least 44,308 patients have recovered.

Italy is the second worst-hit country with 20,465 deaths from 159,516 infections.

It is followed by Spain with 18,056 fatalities from 172,541 confirmed infections, France with 14,967 deaths and 136,779 infections and Britain with 11,329 deaths from 88,621 cases.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 3,341 deaths and 82,249 cases including 89 new ones, with 77,738 recoveries.

Europe has listed 973,087 cases and 81,474 deaths to date, the US and Canada together have 608,274 cases with 24,482 deaths, Asia 144,057 cases with 5,136 deaths, the Middle East 105,246 cases with 5,018 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 69,749 cases with 2,991 deaths, Africa 15,376 cases with 835 deaths and Oceania 7,601 cases with 77 deaths.

Source: AFP