More than 1 002 000 people have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease worldwide, as the death toll surpassed 51 000 while about 208 000 patients recovered.

The coronavirus pandemic death toll in Spain passed 10 000 on Thursday, as the country reported its highest single-day number of deaths since the outbreak began, with the total rising by more than 1 000 to 10 096 among 110 238 infections.

The United States - the world’s hardest-hit country - recorded more than 5 600 coronavirus deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. It has confirmed more than 236 000 cases of the disease.

The number of cumulative known deaths from coronavirus in France surged to nearly 5 400 as the country started including fatalities in nursing homes in its data.

Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of coronavirus-related deaths in hospitals rose 12% on Thursday to 4 503 from a day earlier.

He added that a provisional tally showed that a cumulative 884 people in total had died in nursing homes. This makes for a total of 5 387 lives lost to coronavirus in France.