Global COVID-19 cases reach more than 121M; death toll 2,682,032

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,682,032 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Thursday.

At least 121,209,630 cases of coronavirus have been registered.

The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.

These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organizations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.

On Wednesday, 10,145 new deaths and 519,581 new cases were recorded worldwide.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Brazil with 2,648 new deaths, followed by United States with 1,119 and Mexico with 789.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 538,093 deaths from 29,608,026 cases.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 284,775 deaths from 11,693,838 cases, Mexico with 195,908 deaths from 2,175,462 cases, India with 159,216 deaths from 11,474,605 cases, and the United Kingdom with 125,831 deaths from 4,274,579 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is the Czech Republic with 226 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium with 195, Slovenia 190, Montenegro 186 and the United Kingdom 185.

Europe overall has 908,387 deaths from 40,590,117 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean 729,448 deaths from 23,127,218 infections, and the United States and Canada 560,638 deaths from 30,526,205 cases.

Asia has reported 264,580 deaths from 16,809,364 cases, the Middle East 109,308 deaths from 6,055,974 cases, Africa 108,708 deaths from 4,067,077 cases, and Oceania 963 deaths from 33,679 cases.

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of tests conducted has greatly increased while testing and reporting techniques have improved, leading to a rise in reported cases.

However, the number of diagnosed cases is only a part of the real total number of infections as a significant number of less serious or asymptomatic cases always remain undetected.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day's tallies. -- Agence France-Presse