Over 1.5 million coronavirus deaths have been recorded worldwide from nearly 65 million cases, according to an AFP tally on Thursday based on official statistics.

There have been 1,500,038 fatalities from 64,774,705 cases since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China in December. The worst affected region is Latin America and the Caribbean with 452,263 deaths, followed by Europe (430,060) and the United States and Canada (286,946).

Since late November, there have been more than 10,000 virus deaths globally per day on average, the highest toll rate since the pandemic began.

More than half the COVID-19 deaths registered over the past seven days have been in Europe where new restrictive measures have been introduced in many countries as the second wave of infections takes its toll.

Italy, which suffered a record daily toll of 969 on Thursday, has been the worst hit European country over the past week, followed by Russia, Poland, France and the United Kingdom.

Globally the United States has the highest pandemic death toll, 274,577. followed by Brazil with 174,515 and India with 138,648.

Belgium remains the worst-hit in proportion to population, with 146 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Peru, Spain and Italy.

© 2020 AFP