The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries to be cautious about lifting restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
The WHO would like to see an easing, but at the same time "lifting restrictions could lead to a deadly resurgence," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
He said there had been a "welcome slowing" of epidemics in some European countries - Italy, Germany, Spain and France - but there had been an "alarming acceleration" in other countries including community transmission in 16 countries of Africa.
So far it's infected a confirmed 1.67 million people and killed 101,000, though there is growing evidence these are underestimates.
Europe
United Kingdom
The UK death toll from COVID-19 has risen by 980 to 8958, health minister Matt Hancock says, its biggest daily rise to date.
The toll exceeded the deadliest day reported by Italy on March 28, the country worst hit by the coronavirus.
Hancock urged Britons not to leave their homes over the Easter holidays, during which hot weather is expected.
"This Easter will be another test of the nation's resolve," he said at a news conference in Downing Street on Friday.
Hancock confirmed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's health was improving after leaving a three-night spell of intensive care on Thursday.
Johnson, who is being treated for COVID-19, is now able to take short walks, a Downing Street spokesman said earlier.
France
Fifty crew members aboard France's sole aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, have tested positive for the new coronavirus and parts of the ship have been put in lockdown
"The results of 66 tests showed 50 cases of COVID-19 aboard the Charles de Gaulle. There is no deterioration of the sailors' medical condition at this stage," the ministry said.
The aircraft carrier, which is equipped with its own intensive care facilities, has 1760 personnel on board.
The number of people who have died from the coronavirus in France jumped by nearly 1000 to 13,197 on Friday but the number of people in intensive care units fell slightly for the second day in a row as the effect of nationwide confinement started to show.
The total death toll includes fatalities in hospitals and elderly homes.
Hospital deaths accounted for 8598 of the total sum, up from 8044 on Thursday, while 4599 fatalities took place in care homes.
A total of 90,676 coronavirus cases have been confirmed.
Italy
Italy has recorded 17,669 deaths from the coronavirus confirmed and 143,626 cases of the disease registered according to Reuters tally.
Spain
The coronavirus death toll curve in Spain has flattened further as the government discussed different strategies to start phasing out one of the world's strictest lockdowns.
Spaniards have been off the streets since mid-March, but a slowdown of the COVID-19 disease's spread and its death toll has enabled officials to start discussing a gradual easing.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said the formal lockdown will probably continue into May, but some restrictions may soon be lifted to breathe life into a paralysed economy.
The number of daily deaths fell again on Friday to 605, the lowest figure since March 24, the health ministry said. The rate of increase has dropped to 4 percent down from 20 percent two weeks ago.
Total deaths rose to 15,843 on Friday - the second-highest in the world after Italy. Total cases in Spain rose to 157,022 on Friday from 152,446 on Thursday.
Poland
Vending machines that dispense face masks, gloves and sanitisers appeared on the streets of Poland this week.
By Friday (April 10), 5742 people had been infected with the virus, with 175 dead in the country of 38 million people.
Russia
The Mayor of Moscow warned the coronavirus outbreak was only in the "foothills" of its development in the Russian capital and that a serious test lay ahead as new infections nationwide shot up by a record daily amount on Friday.
Russia reported 1786 new cases, bringing its tally to 11,917, even as Moscow and many other regions neared the end of their second week in a state of lockdown aimed at halting the contagion. Ninety-four people have died, authorities say.
In the bustling capital of more than 12.5 million that has become the epicenter of Russia's outbreak, new cases not only jumped 1124 to almost 8,000, but the number of patients being hospitalised has also doubled in recent days, one official said.
Greece
Residents of a Roma-majority neighbourhood in the central Greek city of Larissa on Friday shouted at government officials for putting them under quarantine.
Deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias and Sotirios Tsiodras, the health ministry's chief infectious diseases specialist, visited the neighbourhood where 21 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
The neighbourhood of some 3500 people was quarantined on Thursday, with a ban on anyone entering or leaving it.
Americas
United States
President Donald Trump said on Friday that he thinks the United States will lose fewer than the initially projected 100,000 lives to COVID-19.
Trump suggested that the United States is nearing its peak infection rate and said the nationwide number of new coronavirus cases is flattening, with the situations in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Detroit, Michigan, stabilising.
The United States has confirmed almost half-a-million infections and recorded 18,000 deaths so far.
Brazil
The President of Brazil visibly ignored advice by health experts the world over, and mingled with people in a bakery in the capital without wearing a mask or keeping a safe distance, before pointedly posting a video of the encounters online.
In the video published on Twitter and YouTube, Jair Bolsonaro is seen hugging supporters and posing for pictures inside the bakery and out on the street.
Bolsonaro has compared the new coronavirus to a "little flu" and publicly attacked governors that introduced quarantine measures, such as in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, two of the country's biggest clusters.
According to the John Hopkins University, Brazil has 18,176 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 957 deaths.
Asia
Malaysia
Malaysia has extended movement and travel restrictions for another two weeks, until April 28, as it tries to contain a coronavirus outbreak which has left it with the most infections in Southeast Asia.
The curbs, imposed on March 18, were originally set to end on April 14. But the government reported 118 new cases on Friday, bringing its total to more than 4200.
"It may take a few months before we can say we are free of the virus," Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address.
Indonesia
Indonesia reported 219 new coronavirus cases and 26 new deaths.
This brings the total number of cases and deaths to 3512 and 306, respectively.
East Timor
East Timor has confirmed another case of coronavirus, health authorities say, bringing the total number of cases to two.
The infected person had travelled from Indonesia's West Timor region.
Middle East and Africa
Yemen
Yemen has reported its first case of the novel coronavirus as aid groups try to prepare for an outbreak in a country where war has shattered the health system and spread hunger and disease.
The news came on Friday after a nationwide ceasefire prompted by the virus pandemic began on Thursday.
A Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi movement announced it would halt military operations for two weeks, though the Houthis have yet to agree.
Outer space
Three NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station spoke to reporters Friday, reflecting on the global virus outbreak.
NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab Thursday in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan.
"We knew as a crew we were gonna be in quarantine about nine months ago or a year ago, those exact weeks, but we didn't know the whole rest of the world was gonna join us," Cassidy said.
They joined two Americans, Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan, and another Russian cosmonaut who will return to Earth in about a week.
"It certainly will be very difficult for me to not be able to give some hugs to my family and friends," Meir said of her return.
Despite changes to Mission Control operations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Morgan said he's confident in the team's ingenuity and professionalism.
"They're gonna return us to Earth safely, just like their predecessors did 50 years ago," he added.
Reuters / APTN / Newshub.
