Death toll from COVID-19 outside China surpasses 1,000: WHO

GENEVA — The number of people who died of COVID-19 outside China climbed to 1,130 as of Wednesday morning, an increase of 258 deaths from the previous day, according to the daily report released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

As of 10:00 CET Wednesday, over 110 countries and regions have reported 118,326 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 37,371 cases outside China, which marked 4,627 more infections globally, among which 4,596 new cases are outside China.

WHO said on Wednesday that the COVID-19 outbreak can be characterized as a "pandemic" as the virus spreads increasingly worldwide.

Bolivia, Jamaica, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have reported coronavirus cases for the first time in the past 24 hours as of Wednesday morning.

Additional five countries -- Serbia, Albania, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Paraguay -- have seen local transmission of COVID-19, raising the total number of countries and regions where local transmission emerged to 66 in addition to China.

Besides, WHO's report showed the coronavirus infects people of all ages, among which older people and those with underlying medical conditions are at a higher risk of getting severe COVID-19 disease.