UPDATES WITH LATEST FIGURES
By Burak Bir
ANKARA (AA) - The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 30,000 on Saturday, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
The virus known as COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan, China last December, has spread to at least 177 countries and regions around the globe, with a total of 652,079 confirmed cases worldwide and 30,313 deaths.
A total of 137,319 people diagnosed with the virus have so far recovered globally.
Italy, Spain, China and Iran continue to be the most affected countries in terms of deaths, but the U.S. tops the list of the highest number of confirmed cases -- 116,505.
Italy recorded the most deaths with 10,023 fatalities with nearly 92,500 cases, while Spain reported 5,812 deaths and over 72,200 confirmed cases. China, the ground zero of the virus, followed Spain with 3,299 deaths and nearly 82,000 cases.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Iran reached 2,517 and the total number of cases surpassed 35,400 in the country.
Many countries have restricted flights from the most affected places and implemented lockdowns as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic and Europe the new epicenter of the outbreak.