PARIS: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 4,822,267 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT on Thursday.

At least 236,232,480 cases of coronavirus have been registered.

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

The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country.

They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.

The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic's overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.

A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.

On Wednesday, 8,662 new deaths and 453,628 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were United States with 2,591 new deaths, followed by Russia with 924 and Mexico with 711.

Coronavirus toll at 1000 GMT Wednesday

The United States is the worst-affected country with 707,788 deaths from 44,059,047 cases.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 599,359 deaths from 21,516,967 cases, India with 449,856 deaths from 33,894,312 cases, Mexico with 280,607 deaths from 3,699,621 cases, and Russia with 213,549 deaths from 7,690,110 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 605 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina with 329, Republic of North Macedonia with 324, Hungary with 313, Montenegro with 313, and Bulgaria with 307.

Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 1,497,712 deaths from 45,186,561 cases, Europe 1,326,233 deaths from 68,861,048 infections, and Asia 846,792 deaths from 54,432,857 cases.

The United States and Canada have reported 735,856 deaths from 45,703,538 cases, Africa 212,186 deaths from 8,343,165 cases, Middle East 201,198 deaths from 13,510,389 cases, and Oceania 2,290 deaths from 194,923 cases.

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.