- 2,341 new deaths and 43,010 new cases have been recorded
- The countries that recorded the most new deaths in 24 hours were Spain, 738, Italy, 683, and France with 231
- Italy, which recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus at the end of February, now has 7,503 deaths
The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 21,500 people worldwide since it first appeared in China in December, official figures say.
More than 452,160 confirmed cases of infection have been diagnosed in 182 countries and territories since the start of the pandemic.
The tallies, using data collected from national authorities and information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), are likely to reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are now only testing cases that require hospitalisation.
Since the tally - carried out on Tuesday at 7pm - 2,341 new deaths and 43,010 new cases have been recorded worldwide.
The countries that recorded the most new deaths in 24 hours were Spain with 738, Italy with 683 and France with 231.
Italy, which recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus at the end of February, now has 7,503 deaths with 74,386 cases.
Three billion people - more than a third of the world's 7.8billion population - are now thought to be under some kind of coronavirus lockdown in an attempt to control the spread of the disease.
Cases of the highly-infectious virus have now been reported on every continent except Antarctica and in virtually every country as the number of confirmed global infections barrelled towards half a million on Wednesday.
World health authorities have warned that America and Europe are now the epicentres of the virus after it emerged in China towards the end of last year and swept from East to West across the globe.
But different countries have taken vastly different approaches - from India locking down all 1.3billion people to Donald Trump saying the USA will be back open for business by Easter.
China has also started loosening restrictions around the ground-zero province of Hubei, providing some hope that an end to the crisis is in sight.
Here, Media has analysed the different measures being taken and complied a picture gallery showing how different countries are dealing with a new reality caused by the disease. After Italy, the most affected countries are Spain with 3,434 deaths for 47,610 cases, mainland China with 3,281 deaths (81,218 cases), Iran with 2,077 deaths (27,017 cases), and France with 1,331 deaths (25,233 cases).
Since Tuesday at 7pm, Jamaica, Cameroon, Estonia and Niger have announced their first deaths linked to the virus. Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Mali, Libya, Belize, Grenada and Dominica, have announced their first cases.
Europe had 239,912 cases and 13,824 deaths, Asia 99,927 cases with 3,596 deaths and the US and Canada had 62,194 cases with 854 deaths.
The Middle East had 32,182 cases and 2,123 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 7,529 cases with 124 deaths, Oceania 2,656 cases and nine deaths and Africa 2,631 cases and 69 deathsThe world shuts down: Map shows how a third of global population - 3BILLION people - are now under coronavirus lockdown
India went into coronavirus lockdown Tuesday, meaning a third of world population is now under containment
Cases have now been reported on every continent except Antarctica, and in virtually every country
Almost half a million infections have been confirmed along with 20,000 deaths, as cases continue to spike
Three billion people - more than a third of the world's 7.8billion population - are now thought to be under some kind of coronavirus lockdown in an attempt to control the spread of the disease.
Cases of the highly-infectious virus have now been reported on every continent except Antarctica and in virtually every country as the number of confirmed global infections barrelled towards half a million on Wednesday.
World health authorities have warned that America and Europe are now the epicentres of the virus after it emerged in China towards the end of last year and swept from East to West across the globe.
But different countries have taken vastly different approaches - from India locking down all 1.3billion people to Donald Trump saying the USA will be back open for business by Easter.
China has also started loosening restrictions around the ground-zero province of Hubei, providing some hope that an end to the crisis is in sight.
Here, MailOnline has analysed the different measures being taken and complied a picture gallery showing how different countries are dealing with a new reality caused by the disease. The head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, was not present at the customary news conference to illustrate the data because he came down with a fever on Wednesday.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 9,362 had fully recovered on Wednesday compared to 8,326 the day before.
There were 3,489 people in intensive care against a previous 3,396.
The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy reported a sharp fall in the number of deaths compared with the day before, but remained in a critical situation, with a total of 4,474 deaths and 32,346 cases.
That compared with 4,178 deaths and 30,703 cases reported up to Tuesday.
Spain has world's second highest tally of coronavirus deaths after seeing its biggest daily rise yet – 738 – to reach 3,434, overtaking China
Spain has today overtaken China to record the world's second-highest death toll from coronavirus.
Spanish officials reported 738 new deaths today, the country's biggest daily jump so far, taking the total from 2,696 to 3,434.
The figure is now higher than the 3,285 people who have died in mainland China, where the outbreak began in late 2019. Italy has the world's highest death toll, with 6,820. Spain's total number of infections also rose by 20 per cent today, with 7,937 new cases bringing the total from 39,673 to 47,610.
Despite an unprecedented lockdown imposed in Spain on March 14, both deaths and infections have continued to mount, with the Spanish army called in to join efforts to curb its spread.
'We are approaching the peak,' the health ministry's emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said in announcing the figures.
Health authorities are hoping it will soon become clear whether the lockdown is having the desired effect.
'This is a very hard week because we're in the first stages of overcoming the virus, a phase in which we are approaching the peak of the epidemic,' health minister Salvador Illa told a televised news conference.
Spain only recorded its first virus death on March 3, but within three weeks the death toll has surged far more quickly than it did in Italy or China.
There are now 3,434 deaths in Spain, while Italy had only 1,266 deaths at the same stage after the first one. China had 259.
