Paris (AFP)

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 2,400,543 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to an assessment established by AFP from from official sources Monday at 11:00 GMT.

More than 108,785,960 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed since the start of the epidemic, of which at least 66,547,800 are now considered cured.

The figures are based on daily reports from the health authorities in each country and exclude ex post revisions by statistical agencies, such as Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

On Sunday, 6,386 new deaths and 290,730 new cases were identified worldwide.

The countries that have recorded the most new deaths in their latest reports are the United States with 1,156 new deaths, Brazil (713) and Mexico (436).

The United States is the most affected country in terms of both death and cases, with 485,337 deaths for 27,640,521 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.

After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil with 239,245 deaths and 9,834,513 cases, Mexico with 174,207 deaths (1,992,794 cases), India with 155,732 deaths (10,916,589 cases), and the United Kingdom with 117,166 dead (4,038,078 cases).

Among the hardest hit countries, Belgium is the one that deplores the highest number of deaths in relation to its population, with 187 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Slovenia (179), the United Kingdom (173), Czech Republic (170) and Italy (155).

Europe totaled 804,135 deaths for 35,571,937 cases Monday at 11:00 GMT, Latin America and the Caribbean 640,943 deaths (20,163,894 cases), the United States and Canada 506,625 deaths (28,465,866 cases), the Asia 248,484 deaths (15,699,093 cases), the Middle East 100,909 deaths (5,099,411 cases), Africa 98,501 deaths (3,753,890 cases), and Oceania 946 deaths (31,878 cases).

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of tests carried out has increased sharply and screening and tracing techniques have improved, leading to an increase in declared contaminations.

The number of cases diagnosed, however, reflects only a fraction of the actual total of contaminations, with a large proportion of the less serious or asymptomatic cases still remaining undetected.

This assessment was carried out using data collected by AFP offices from the competent national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Due to corrections made by the authorities or late publication of the data, the 24 hour increase figures may not correspond exactly to those published the day before.

© 2021 AFP