More than 250,000 cases of new coronavirus have been officially diagnosed in Europe, more than half of them in Italy (74,386) and Spain (56,188), according to a count made by AFP on Thursday at 1 p.m.
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With at least 258,068 cases, including 14,640 deaths, Europe is the continent most affected by the pandemic, ahead of Asia (100,937 cases including 3,636 deaths), the initial focus of the contagion. This number of officially diagnosed cases, however, only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, with a large number of countries now testing only those in need of hospital care.