Europe coronavirus death toll tops 90,000

The coronavirus has killed more than 90,000 people in Europe, over 65 percent of the overall global death toll, according to an AFP tally Thursday at 1030 GMT from official sources.

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With a total of 90,180 deaths out of some 1,047,279 infections, Europe is the hardest-hit continent by the pandemic, which has killed a total of 137,499 worldwide.

The largest number of deaths have been seen in Italy with 21,645 and Spain with 19,130, followed by France with 17,167 deaths and Britain 12,868.

A military personnel carries the coffin of a person deceased from coronavirus in Seriate, Italy, on Saturday. AFP

Globally, the number of recorded infections stands at 2,083,551.

The number of detected cases, however, only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, with many countries testing only those cases requiring hospital care.

The tallies are collated using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

An elderly COVID-19 patient is transferred to an ambulance from a Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Felipe Dana/AP

Spain's coronavirus death toll soared past 19,000 on Thursday after another 551 people died of COVID-19, with the numbers reflecting a slowdown after nearly five weeks on lockdown.

One of the worst-hit countries in the world, Spain has seen the increase in the number of deaths and infections come down over the past fortnight, with the overnight fatalities taking the toll to 19,130.

Staff prepare to load equipment into London Ambulance Service vehicles in the east car park at the ExCeL in London. AFP

But there are growing concerns that the toll may be far higher, with regional authorities in Madrid and Catalonia insisting they each had thousands more victims than the official count.

Madrid, which by Thursday counted 6,877 deaths, has mooted a figure well above 10,000, while Catalonia, where some 3,855 have died, believes its toll to be nearly double that after changing counting method.

One of the victims was best-selling Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda who died at a hospital in northern Spain, his publishing house said on Thursday. He was 70.