Global COVID-19 death toll topped 170,000 on Monday evening, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
A total of 170,261 people have died of the disease as of 10:40 p.m. Monday (0340 GMT on Tuesday) among 2,475,841 cases worldwide, the CSSE data showed.
The United States suffered the most fatalities at 42,295 as its total cases topped 786,600; Italy recorded 24,114 deaths, Spain reported 20,852 deaths and France also recorded over 20,000 deaths, according to the CSSE.
Italy, the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe, reported on Monday for the first time a fall in its total active COVID-19 infections, and Spain saw its lowest single-day fatalities in the past four weeks.
The U.S. state of New York, the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak, has launched a large-scale COVID-19 antibody testing starting on Monday in an effort to find out how much of its population has been infected with the virus.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced on Twitter that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration to his country.
The decision, according to Trump, is made in light of the pandemic and "the need to protect the jobs" of Americans.
