PARIS, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 150,000 on Saturday driven by a spike in infections in Italy.
Italy announced 3,497 new cases on Saturday, bringing the global total to 151,797, with 5,764 deaths across 137 countries and territories.
Italy, the worst-hit country outside of China where the outbreak began in December, has now registered a total of 21,157 cases and 1,441 deaths.
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — where the epidemic was declared in late December, has to date declared 80,824 cases, for 3,189 deaths, with 65,541 people recovered.
The country declared 11 new cases and 13 new fatalities Friday to Saturday.
Outside China, by Saturday there had been 2,213 fatalities — 42 since Friday — for 62,583 cases, 2,665 of them new.
The worst-hit nations after China and Italy were Iran with 514 fatalities (11,364 cases), Spain, with 121 deaths for 4,231 cases and France, with 9 deaths and 3,661 cases.
Since Friday, Ecuador has announced its first death while Kosovo, Mauritania, Uruguay, Surinam, Guatemala, Antigua-and-Barbuda, Namibia, eSwatini, Porto Rico and Guinea have declared their first cases.
By 0900 GMT Saturday, Asia had listed 91,346 cases and 3,299 deaths, Europe 36,399 cases and 1,514 deaths, the Middle East 12,475 cases for 527 deaths, the United States and Canada 2,350 cases for 48 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 388 cases and 5 deaths, Oceania 244 cases and three deaths and Africa 205 cases for 6 deaths.
