Belgium coronavirus deaths top 3,000

Brussels: Belgium's death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic has topped 3,000, officials said Friday after the country recorded 496 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

Health authorities said the big jump over previous daily counts included 171 fatalities in retirement homes that took place in the last half of March.

It pushed the national running total of COVID-19 related deaths to 3,019. (AFP) RS