GENEVA, March 23. /TASS/. A total of 332,930 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus and 14,510 fatalities have been registered worldwide as of 10 a.m. Geneva time (noon Moscow time) on Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin.
The number of confirmed cases grew by more than 40,000 in the past 24 hours to reach 332,930.
The number of fatalities increased by 1,727 in the reported period, to 14,510.
Europe accounts for the majority of confirmed cases and fatalities - 171,424 and 8,743, respectively. In the past 24 hours, the number of cases grew by 20,131 and the number of deaths - by 1,318.
The Asia Pacific region, which includes China, South Korea and Japan, has 95,637 cases and 3,473 fatalities as of March 23.
Three new countries detected first cases of the novel coronavirus infection on their territory in past day.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December 2019. Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported from more than 150 countries and territories, including Russia, which by now has 438 cases, with 17 patients having recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.