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The number of people killed by coronavirus worldwide passed 450,000 on Thursday, after the toll doubled in just a month and a half, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources at 1615 GMT.

A total of 450,004 people have died from the disease out of 8,395,929 cases reported across the world since COVID-19 emerged in China late last year.

Europe has been the hardest-hit continent, with 190,120 deaths from 2,469,242 infections, but the pandemic is now spreading most rapidly in Latin America, which has recorded 86,706 deaths from 1,840,488 cases.