Global coronavirus death toll hits 600,000

NEW YORK – The number of coronavirus cases across the world has crossed 14.2 while the disease has claimed more than 600,000 lives since the outbreak emerged in China last December.

The United States is the worse hit, where cases have mounted over 3.79 and death toll reached over 142,000. 

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 78,000 deaths from over 2 million cases, Britain with 45,273 deaths from 294,066 cases, Mexico with 38,310 deaths from 331,298 cases, and Italy with 35,042 deaths from 244,216 cases.

More than 8.5 million patients have recovered from the disease across the world.    

The tallies, using data collected 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 symptomatic or the most serious cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 85 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Britain with 66, Spain 61, Italy 58, and Sweden 56.

China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 83,644 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 78,758 recoveries.

Europe overall has 204,807 deaths from 2,923,849 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean 158,483 deaths from 3,710,432 infections and the United States and Canada 148,131 deaths from 3,757,238 cases.

Asia has registered 48,225 deaths from 1,999,335 cases, the middle East 22,276 deaths from 987,037 cases, Africa 14,673 deaths from 683,596 cases, and Oceania 147 deaths from 13,033 cases.