With 4,982 Fresh Global Deaths Due To Covid-19, Toll Nears 200,000: WHO

The overall number of COVID-19 cases worldwide increased to 2,878,196 and the death count reached 198,668.

AP/PTI

New Delhi: The global death toll from the novel coronavirus has increased over the past 24 hours by nearly 5,000 to top 198,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. According to the latest WHO data, 85,530 new cases of infection have been registered globally over the past day, with 4,982 deaths. The overall number of COVID-19 cases worldwide increased to 2,878,196 and the death count reached 198,668. There are 1,359,380 confirmed cases and 124,525 deaths in Europe. The number of cases in the Americas  total 1,140,520, with 58,492 deaths. Meanwhile, The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries should have listened to the agency after it declared a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" on 30 January, when there were 82 cases outside China and no deaths, the BBC reported on Monday. "The world should have listened to WHO then, carefully," he told reporters. "We advised the whole world to implement a comprehensive public health approach, and we said: 'Find, test, isolate, and do contact tracing'. You can check for yourselves: countries who followed that are in a better position than others." (inputs from agencies)