The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy rose in the last 24 hours by 427 to 3,405, overtaking the total number of deaths so far registered in China, officials said on Thursday (March 19).
Thursday's figure represented a slight improvement on the day before, when Italy recorded 475 deaths from COVID-19, while the world has stepped up efforts against the coronavirus pandemic by closing schools, shutting down cities and imposing strict border controls.
The total number of infections in Italy has also risen to more than 41,000, while cases in Germany, Iran and Spain rose to more than 12,000 each.
Nearly 220,000 people have now been confirmed with the coronavirus globally, of which at least 84,000 have recovered from COVID-19, while more than 8,800 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in the US.
The virus was first detected on December 31 in Hubei Province, China. At present, the number of virus infected and dead in the country is going down. Already health workers from different provinces of China have officially begun to leave. So far in the country, Corona has killed a total of 3,226 people. 82 thousand 7 people were infected.
The corona horror though ended in China, but it has gone to be terrifying in Europe particularly in Italy. International news media al-Jazeera cited the country's civil defense agency as the number of corona infected in Italy rose to 31506. So far 2 thousand 503 have died of the virus.
Currently the country is in lockdown. All educational, business establishments, traffic movement and everything have been shut down. Food service establishments and pharmacies are open. Fines are being imposed for violating lockdown. Earlier, the government had banned public gatherings to prevent the coroner's spread. All types of sports events, including football matches, have been suspended.
WHO has informed that of the total more then 2 lakh infected from coronavirus, 80 percent belong to Europe and West Pacific Ocean zones, which includes many countries of Asia.
Among the Asian countries Iran is the worst hit area after China where 1284 people died meanwhile due to corona infection.