The global death toll from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has surpassed 400,000, and the number of confirmed cases has topped 6.9 million, reported Sputnik news agency based on data from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) daily situation report.

The number of deaths worldwide has increased over the past 24 hours by 3,469 to 400,857, the WHO said.

The case tally has gone up by 131,296 to 6,931,000, it said.

Most cases of infection are recorded in the Americas – 3,311,387, with 181,804 deaths.

The WHO declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.

In line with Johns Hopkins University's data, the global case tally surpasses 7 million, with over 405,000 deaths and more than 3.1 million recoveries. - BERNAMA