The number of deaths from the new coronavirus has surpassed 800,000 around the world, according to an AFP tally based on official sources at around 1100 GMT on Saturday.
In total, 800,004 fatalities have been recorded globally, out of 23,003,079 declared infections.
Latin America and the Caribbean is the region the most affected with 254,897 deaths. More than half of global fatalities have been reported in four countries: the United States with 175,416, Brazil with 113,358, Mexico 59,610 and India 55,794.
The number of deaths has doubled since June 6, and 100,000 have been recorded in the last 17 days alone.
The toll had reached 400,000 deaths around the world 147 days after the announcement of the first fatality in China, while it has taken 77 days to reach 800,000.
Latin America and the Caribbean, which have a total of 6,575,960 declared cases, reported 17,095 new deaths over the past seven days, slightly below the previous week.
Asia reported 8,501 new deaths over the week, Canada and the United States 6,964, Europe 2,550, Africa 2,227, the Middle East 2,188 and Oceania 99.
After Latin America, Europe has 212,533 deaths from 3,681,448 cases, ahead of Canada and the United States (184,516 deaths, 5,749,093 infections), Asia (86,288, 4,410,622) and the Middle East (33,930, 1,389,619).
Africa, with 27,319 fatalities out of 1,169,204 declared cases, is the least affected continent after Oceania (521 deaths, 27,133 cases).
The United States is the country with the most reported new deaths over the past week with 6,927, followed by Brazil (6,835), India (6,809), Mexico (3,702) and Colombia (2,076).
Belgium remains the country with the greatest number of deaths per capita, with 86 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru (83), Spain (62), Britain (61) and Italy (59).
-AFP
