Europe has registered more than six million confirmed cases of novel coronavirus since it first appeared in the region in January, an AFP tally just after 1500 GMT Wednesday showed.

So far the continent has seen 6,000,940 infections and 237,716 deaths, with the most in Russia (1,248,619 infections and 21,865 deaths), Spain (825,410 infections, 32,486 deaths), France (669,235 infections, 32,365 deaths) and Britain (530,113 infection, 42,445 deaths).

The past seven days have brought 543,137 new cases in Europe, a pace that is 26 percent faster than the previous week's 431,951. Deaths also accelerated by 17 percent over the same period, from 4,765 to 5,562.

Larger numbers of confirmed infections can partly be explained by much more widespread testing taking place in a number of European countries, such as in France where more than one million are carried out each week. Nevertheless, a large share of less serious or asymptomatic cases likely remain undetected.