The novel coronavirus pandemic killed more than 40,000 people worldwide with nearly three-quarters of the deaths in Europe, according to an AFP tally at 16:20 GMT Tuesday using official figures.

A total of 40,057 deaths have so far been recorded across the world, including 29,305 in Europe, with Italy registering 12,428, followed by Spain with 8,189 and China with 3,305.

Since the virus emerged in China in December, 2019— 803,645 global infections have been confirmed, more than half of them in Europe, which has 440,928.

The United States and Canada has 172,071 cases and 3,243 deaths and Asia has 108,421 cases with 3,882 deaths.