France records 471 coronavirus deaths in last 24 hours

As the coronavirus pandemic has taken the world hostage, France has recorded about 471 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the total tally of deaths to 4,503, Jerome Salomon, the head of the national public health service (DGS), said on Thursday, April 2.

"Since March 14,503 deaths have been registered in French hospitals. People who are older than 70 account for 83% of the fatalities. So, 471 deaths have been registered over the past 24 hours," Salomon said.

According to the DGS head, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has climbed to 59,105 from yesterday's 56,989.

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One million positive cases worldwide

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases worldwide crossed over one million, while the total number of deaths surged past 50,000 on Thursday, April 2. The pandemic that saw its outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan spread across the world so rapidly that the countries didn't even know what hit them.

China, which initially struggled to contain the virus, has now succeeded reasonably while the threat moved to European nations especially Italy, Spain and Germany, whereas the United States which was behind earlier has now topped the list of most affected country in the world, having more than 237,000 positive cases of COVID-19.

Italy has suffered the maximum deaths as a major chunk of its population falls withing the aged and vulnerable category. The death toll in Italy is nearing the 14,000 mark while the US has witnessed over 5,700 deaths. Of the total tally of US deaths, over 1,300 have died in New York alone; the city that is the financial capital of the US is now a hotspot and the latest epicentre of the deadly virus.

(Representative image, source - ANI)

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