The head of the World Health Organisation said today that Europe has now become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a news conference, WHO Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the death toll a "tragic milestone".

There have been over 3,000 virus-related fatalities in China, where the outbreak began late last year and was the previous epicentre, and also more than 1,200 deaths in Italy, which has been put on lockdown to try and curb the spread of the disease.

Italy is the worst-affected nation in Europe and in its most severely-hit region, Lombardy, the number of deaths has reportedly risen from 744 to 890 in a day.

There have also been more than 137,300 confirmed infections in 123 countries and territories, including over 80,000 in China and 15,000 in Italy.

The WHO, which earlier this week officially declared the outbreak a pandemic, said there was a major funding gap for potential coronavirus vaccines.

More than 5,000 people have died worldwide after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

WAM/Hatem Mohamed