New Delhi, Apr 3 (IANS): The global coronavirus toll crossed 51,000 late on Thursday with Italy (13,915) and Spain (10,096) accounting for nearly half the fatalities, while the number of cases were fast approaching a million, with the US having over a fifth of them, as per the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Centre.

As of midnight, the toll stood at 51,335 and the total number of cases around the world at 998,047.

The US, which had the maximum cases at 234,462, reported the third highest number of deaths at 5,607, with 1,374 of them in New York City.

France, at 4,503 deaths, was at fourth place and was followed by China, from where the disease outbreak was first reported with 3,322 (3,199 of them in Hubei provice, where epicentre Wuhan is located), and Iran at 3,160 deaths.

Italy was second in the mumber of cases, at 115,242, closely followed by Spain with 110,238, while China had 82,432.

Germany reported 81,728, France 57,807 and Iran 50,468.

On the other hand, 208,630 people have recovered worldwide, led by China with 76,571, Spain with 26,743, 21,400 recovered in Germany, 18,278 recovered in Italy, and 16,711 in Iran.