LONDON: Global deaths linked to the coronavirus passed 200,000 on Saturday, while confirmed cases of the virus are expected to hit three million in coming days, according to a credible tally.

More than half of the fatalities have been reported by the United States, Spain and Italy.

The first death linlced to the disease was reported on Jan 10 in Wuhan, China. It took 91 days for the death toll to pass 100,000 and a further 16 days to reach 200,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments.

By comparison, there are an estimated 400,000 deaths annually from malaria, one of the world`s most deadly infectious diseases.

The United States had reported more than 52,400 deaths as of Saturday morning, while Italy, Spain and Francehave reported between 22,000 and 26,000 fatalities each.

Of the top 20 most severely affected countries, Belgium has reported the highest number of fatalities per capita,with six deaths per 10,000 people, compared to 4.9 in Spain and 1.6 in the United States.

Around 8 per cent of all cases reported in the United States havebeen fatal, while more than 10pc of cases reported in Spain and Italy have resulted in deaths.

However, those rates would be considerably lower if the infection totals included the many cases of the illness that go unreported since not everyone with symptoms is tested.

Asia and Latin America have each reported more than 7,000 deaths, while the Middle East has reported upwards of 8,800. The current toll in Africa is around 1,350.

The global death toll has continued to grow at a rate of 3-4pc per day over the past 10 days, though that rate has slowed since the beginning of the month.

The true number of fatalities is expected to be higher as many countries have not included deaths recorded in nursing homes and other locations outside hospitals.

Deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 415 on Saturday, the smallest daily tally since March 17, the civil Protection Agency said.

The number of new infections was also the lowest in five days at 2,357 from 3,021 on Friday. Saturday`s death tollwas slightly down from 420 on Friday.

The total of fatalities since the outbreal( came to light on Feb 21 now stands at 26,384, the agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States.

The number of confirmed cases was 195,351, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain.

People registered ascurrently carrying the illness fell to 105,847 from 106,527 on Friday, a sixth consecutive daily decline.

There were 2,102 people in intensive care on Saturday against 2,173 on Friday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 63,120 were declared recovered against 60,498 a day earlier.

The agency said 1.187 million people had been tested for the virus against 1.148 million the day before, out of a population of around 60 million.

Meanwhile, China is dropping a requirement that a number of key virus care products get domestic regulatory approval before export, as long as they are approved in the importing countries.-Reuters