PARIS • Asia has registered more than 100,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus since it first emerged in December, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official sources yesterday.

A total of 100,667 deaths have been attributed to the coronavirus in the region out of 5,420,803 officially declared cases, with 4,255,760 people considered to have recovered.

In terms of fatalities, India is the most affected country with nearly three-quarters of total deaths in the region - 67,376 deaths from 3,853,406 cases.

It is followed by Indonesia with 7,750 deaths from 184,268 cases and Pakistan with 6,328 deaths from 297,014 cases.

The continent, which had successfully contained the virus after its discovery in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has faced an increase in the daily number of cases and deaths since last month.

Nearly 90,000 infections and 1,200 fatalities have been reported on average every day for the past week. This represents an 11 per cent increase in the number of cases and a 6 per cent rise in the number of deaths over the previous week.

The region also had the most cases in one week at 618,000 and the second highest number of deaths at 8,600, a figure topped only by Latin America, which still records more than 16,000 deaths weekly.

As well as being the worst-hit country in Asia, India has also reported the biggest surge in the world in a week, with more than half a million new cases (up 15 per cent in seven days) and more than 6,800 new deaths (up 5 per cent).

In terms of deaths, Asia is the fourth most affected region in the world, behind Latin America and the Caribbean (82,979 deaths, 7,514,473 cases); Europe (216,596 deaths, 4,049,902 cases); and the United States and Canada (194,915 deaths, 6,244,459 cases).

It is ahead of the Middle East (37,004 deaths, 1,524,773 cases), Africa (30,260 deaths, 1,267,343 cases) and Oceania (707 deaths, 29,320 cases).

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE