Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 1.2 million, death toll passes 65,000

ANKARA

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed the 1.2 million on April 5 as the pandemic swept across the globe.

Johns Hopkins University's website showed over 65,000 people have died from the virus. The total number of people recovered from COVID-19 reached passed 252,000, according to the data.

Asia

• Mainland China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on April 4, up from 19 a day earlier as the number of cases involving travellers from abroad as well as local transmissions increased, highlighting the difficulty in stamping out the outbreak.
• Some 143 more cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported in Tokyo, the city's governor said on April 5, with the highest daily jump bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
• Tokyo's metropolitan government has strongly urged people to stay at home as the city of nearly 14 million has seen an uptick in the number of cases in recent days.
• South Korea has extended government guidelines urging people to social distance to slow the spread of the coronavirus for two weeks as infections continue to grow in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area.
• South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 4 confirmed 94 new cases and three more deaths, bringing national totals to 10,156 cases and 177 deaths.
• India is restricting the export of most diagnostic testing kits, as coronavirus cases topped 3,350 on April 5. The country has imposed a three-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the disease.
• Australian health officials said they were cautiously optimistic about the slowing spread of the coronavirus but warned social distancing restrictions are to stay in place for months.

Europe

• The total number of deaths from the coronavirus in France reached a new high - 7,560 - on April 4 as the government included more previously unreported deaths in nursing homes.
• Queen Elizabeth will call on Britons to take on the challenge and disruption caused by the outbreak with good-humoured resolve when she makes an extremely rare address to rally the nation on April 5.
• The rate of the coronavirus outbreak continues to slow in Spain, the country with the second most infections behind the United States. Spain recorded 6,023 confirmed new infections on April 5, taking the national tally to 130,759. That is down from an increase of 7,026 infections in the previous 24-hour period, confirming the downward tendency of the past week.
• Italy is seeing more relief from the coronavirus outbreak in its jammed intensive care units, with 74 fewer beds in use over the past day nationwide. Civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said the dip in ICU saturation was "important news because it allows our hospitals to breathe." Intensive care wards in Lombardy, the epicenter of the European outbreak, have been full for weeks but on April 4 there were 56 fewer beds in use than the day before.
• Overall, new infections continued to slow their once-exponential pace, with 4,805 new cases registered on April 4 that brought Italy's official count to 124,632. The death toll continued to mount, with 681 new victims bringing the world's highest toll to 15,362.
• The death toll from coronavirus in Germany has climbed to 1,446 on April 5, according to figures released by local authorities. Data analysis firm Risklayer and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which compiled real-time figures from nearly 400 local health authorities, reported 169 new deaths over the past 24 hours.

Americas

• President Donald Trump told Americans to brace for a big spike in coronavirus fatalities in the coming days, as the country faces what he called the toughest two weeks of the pandemic.
• More than 306,000 people have tested positive in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
• The number of crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen 13 percent in the past 24 hours to 155, the Navy said on April 4, in the wake of the firing of the carrier's captain.
• Brazil's lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a "war budget" to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government's main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases. 

Middle East and Africa

• The death toll in Iran from the outbreak of the new coronavirus has reached 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement broadcast live on state TV on April 5. One hundred and fifty one people have died in the past twenty four hours, he said.
• The Islamic Republic, the Middle Eastern country worst-hit by the epidemic, now has a total of 58,226 infections, Jahanpur said.
• Dubai imposed a two-week lockdown and Saudi Arabia sealed off parts of the Red Sea city of Jeddah as Gulf states tightened measures in big cities to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
• The novel coronavirus has killed 46 people in Israel, with 8,018 cases registered so far, health officials said on April 5. The Health Ministry said 203 more people tested positive for the virus, noting that out of the total, 127 are in critical condition.
• Kuwait recorded on April 4 its first death from the coronavirus outbreak, state news agency KUNA reported, citing a health ministry spokesman. The total number of people diagnosed with the disease increased by 62 in the past 24 hours to 479 cases, he said, according to KUNA.
• Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi postponed the launch of mega-projects including the Grand Egyptian Museum and moving civil servants to a planned new capital city to 2021 from 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the presidency said.
• Algeria will extend curfews it has put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus from April 5, the prime minister said on April 4, as the number of confirmed cases rose to 1,251.
• Morocco's King Mohammed VI has pardoned 5,654 prisoners and ordered measures to protect inmates from the coronavirus outbreak, the justice ministry said on April 5. The inmates were selected on the basis of their age, frail health, time spent in prison and good conduct, the ministry said in a statement.
• Morocco has confirmed as of April 5 morning 919 coronavirus cases, including 59 deaths.

Economic fallout

• The job losses suffered in March as the U.S. economy shut down were widespread but still were disproportionately felt in a handful of employment sectors and by women, the young and the less educated.
• The pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and plunged the world into a recession that will be "way worse" than the global financial crisis a decade ago, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on April 3.
• Global stock markets sank on April 3 following more signs that the pandemic would take a massive toll on economic growth. 
• OPEC and Russia have postponed an April 6 meeting to discuss oil output cuts until April 9, OPEC sources said on April 4, as a dispute between Moscow and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices intensified. The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilise global oil markets.