Global death toll from coronavirus passes 15,000

A total of 15,189 deaths have been recorded, the majority in Europe with 9,197 fatalities.

PARIS (AFP) - Deaths from the coronavirus pandemic have topped 15,000 across the globe, according to an AFP tally compiled at 1100 GMT on Monday from official figures.

A total of 15,189 deaths have been recorded, the majority in Europe with 9,197 fatalities.

Italy is the hardest-hit country with 5,476 deaths, followed by China where the virus first emerged last year with 3,270, and Spain with 2,182.

With a total of 1,395 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours out of 172,238 officially declared cases, Europe is now the continent where the virus is spreading the most rapidly.

Iran reports 127 new deaths

Iran announced 127 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,812 in one of the worst hit countries along with Italy, Spain and China.

Health ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour said 1,411 new cases had been recorded in Iran over the past 24 hours, bringing the total of those infected to 23,049.

Jahanpour, who was speaking during his daily news conference devoted to the pandemic, said he would no longer give a breakdown of cases by province.

This was necessary, he said, to avoid sparking undue concern among residents of the most stricken areas and ensure that those in less affected zones remained cautious.

All of Iran s 31 provinces have been hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Tolls provided by the health ministry in recent days indicated that the spread of the virus has worsened especially in northern and central regions of Iran.

Jahanpour renewed a call by authorities for people to stay at home until "the virus is conquered".

That call has come as the Islamic republic is celebrating the Iranian New Year, a time when people usually travel far and wide across the country for holidays and family reunions.

Authorities, however, have not imposed any travel ban or lockdown on Iran where the Nowruz holiday continues until April 3.

On Sunday the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Iranians to follow state instructions "so that Almighty God will put an end to this calamity for the Iranian people, for all Muslim nations and for all mankind".

First coronavirus death in Brussels s EU institutions

A male employee at the European Parliament has become the first person in the main EU governing institutions in Brussels to die after contracting the new coronavirus, officials told AFP on Monday.

A parliament spokesman told AFP the man was "external personnel" and his death was, "according to the current state of information, due to the coronavirus".

He expressed the parliament s regret at confirming the death.

A parliamentary source said the deceased man was an Italian citizen in his 40s who worked in the parliament s IT service.

Europe is now the epicentre of the global outbreak of a new form of coronavirus that causes a disease known as COVID-19, and Belgium has recorded 3,743 cases and 88 deaths.

Authorities acknowledge that the true tally of infections is much higher but testing is currently limited to hospitalised patients with severe symptoms and health workers with fever.

A number of workers at the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament have become infected, among them the EU s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier who is in quarantine in his native France.

The EU institutions and agencies have sent many staff to work from home, and Belgium has closed its borders, ordered schools, bars and restaurants shut, banned mass gatherings and is issuing fines for unnecessary trips outside the home.