Europe's Covid-19 death toll passes 800,000

More than 800,00 people have died from the coronavirus across Europe since the pandemic began in December 2019, according to an AFP tally Saturday based on official sources.

As of Saturday, 1630 GMT, there were 800,361 deaths recorded in the 52 countries and territories that make up the continent -- including Russia and Turkey -- for 35,395,270 declared cases.

That puts the continent's death toll ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean, which has 635,834 dead for 20,021,361 cases; of the United States and Canada's 502,064 deaths for 28,312,719 cases; and Asia's 247,730 deaths for 15,641,940 cases.

Europe as a whole recorded an average 4,478 deaths a day from the virus last week, 14 percent lower than the previous week.

But since November 11, the region has recorded at least 4,000 deaths a day on average -- peaking at a record 5,700 daily deaths at the end of January.

For a month though, the figures for infections have been falling in Europe.

But if the curve of average daily deaths has dropped, the tendency remains constant over the long term -- for since the beginning of November, 100,000 deaths have been recorded about every 20 days.

Thus Europe passed 500,000 deaths on December 17; 600,000 on January 7; and 700,000 on January 25.

The worst-hit countries in Europe are the United Kingdom with 116,908 deaths; Italy with 93,045; France with 81,488; Russia, with 79,696; and Spain with 64,747 deaths.

The worst death rates in Europe are Belgium with 186 deaths per 100,000 population; Slovenia, with 178 deaths; the UK with 171; the Czech Republic with 169; and Italy with 154 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

But these figures -- and the death rates -- are based on daily tolls provided by national health authorities and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.

The coronavirus has so far killed 2.38 million people across the world.