Live Updates: Worldwide COVID-19 Tally Tops 2.4 Mln

The death toll has increased by two to 236, according to the Health Ministry's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Seven of the new infections are imported. The number of new daily infections in the country has been below 20 for the third consecutive day. On Sunday, South Korea recorded only eight new cases, which was the lowest increase since mid-February.

The number of recoveries has increased to 8,114.

The United States now has over 759,000 confirmed coronavirus cases; more than 70,000 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country.

Out of the 12 new cases, eight are imported. According to the commission, China now has 82,747 confirmed coronavirus cases. The country's death toll is 4,632; over 77,000 COVID-19 patients have been released from hospitals.

As of 21:30 GMT on Sunday there were 755,533 coronavirus cases in the US, including 40,461 deaths from COVID-19. New York City alone had 14,451 coronavirus fatalities, the Johns Hopkins University count showed.

No new fatalities have been reported since Saturday, when the third coronavirus victim, a 78-year-old Palestinian woman, died in a hospital in East Jerusalem.

As of late Sunday, there were 13,491 confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel and the death toll stood at 172. Over 140 of the people currently hospitaliыed with COVID-19 in Israel are in grave condition. More than 3,750 have recovered, according to the health ministry.

In total, 6,463 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have died over the preceding 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 152,551 as of 08:00 GMT.

The latest update indicates a decline in the daily increase of case numbers and deaths compared to data released by WHO on Saturday. Almost 4,000 fewer cases and 247 fewer deaths were reported worldwide on Sunday.

More than 10,000 deaths have been reported in the US over the past four days after the 30,000-death threshold was passed on Thursday.

France has confirmed 395 new deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the toll to 19,718, the country's public health chief Jerome Salomon said.

He added that the number of people in intensive care units has been falling for the eleventh day in a row, to 5,744.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy currently stands at 178,972, the country's health officials said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Turkey has increased by 3,977 to 86,306, with 2,017 deaths.

PARIS (Sputnik) - The COVID-19 situation in France is steadily improving, but the epidemiological crisis is far from over, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Sunday.

“The situation is improving slowly, but positively. But the health crisis continues. To think that the crisis is behind us would be a mistake,” Philippe said at a press conference.

The prime minister added that life after May 11, when France is scheduled to lift the lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, would not be the same.

On the same day, the head of France’s public health agency Jerome Salomon reported that the country’s COVID-19 death toll has increased by 395 over the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 19,718. The latest rise is a significant drop from the 642 new deaths reported on Saturday.

In total, 12,069 people have died in French hospitals, and a further 7,649 people have lost their lives in the country’s care facilities.

A further 785 cases of the disease were reported, raising the overall total since the start of the outbreak to 112,606. More than 30,000 people are still hospitalized undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the extension of stringent social distancing measures that have resulted in the closure of restaurants, parks, museums, and shops until May 11. From this date, the measures will be lifted gradually, the president stated.

The country's coronavirus death toll currently stands at 133, according to the health ministry.

In terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Latin America, Chile is ranked third after Brazil and Peru. 

Russia will receive 1.6 million units of personal protective equipment from China by the end of the month, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said on Sunday.

"We signed up for the supply with our friends from China, and more than 300,000 protective clothing units have already been shipped, and before the end of the month we will receive about 1.6 million units," Manturov said in a televised interview.

As of April 7, the shortage of personal protective equipment in light of the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to 300,000 units, according to Manturov.

"We've made very good progress and I'm very hopeful we can come to an agreement tonight or early tomorrow morning," Schumer said in an interview with CNN.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has called for a global investigation into the cause of the coronavirus pandemic and China’s response during the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan.

"It will need parties, countries to come to the table with a willingness to be transparent and to engage in that process and to ensure that we have a review mechanism in which the international community can have faith," Payne said live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The foreign minister added that she did not believe the investigation should be led by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The issues around the coronavirus are issues for independent review, and I think that it is important that we do that. In fact, Australia will absolutely insist on that," Payne noted, adding that "we would expect and trust that China would cooperate."

When asked by the ABC anchor whether she trusted China, the diplomat said that she trusted "China in terms of the work that we need to do together."

China has come under fire for allowing the COVID-19 pandemic to get out of control by allegedly hiding the outbreak and underreporting data on those infected. US President Donald Trump has said the WHO’s reliance on this data has caused a 20-fold increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide, and suspended funding for a period of 60 to 90 days pending completion of an investigation into WHO's and China's actions during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beijing has repeatedly denied any cover-up of the scale of the epidemic.

WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, the number of people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide exceeds 2.3 million and more than 161,000 have succumbed to the deadly virus or related health complications, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Ukraine has registered 343 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, and the total number of people infected with COVID-19 in the country has climbed to 5,449, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

"As of April 19, 09:00 a.m. [06:00 GMT], Ukraine has 5,449 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, 141 patients died and 347 fully recovered. Over the past day, 343 new cases were registered," the ministry wrote on its official Telegram channel.

At the same time, the number of people infected with coronavirus in Kiev alone has increased by 31 to 801, four of whom were doctors, Mayor Vitaliy Klichko said, adding that one patient had died.

According to Klichko, there is a 10-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy among the COVID-19 patients. Five people were hospitalized. Others are staying in self-isolation under medical supervision.

A flight of the Aurora airlines carrying Russian nationals from Tokyo has landed in  in Vladivostok.

The plane departed from Tokyo with a delay and arrived in Vladivostok at 5.55 p.m. (07:55 GMT). It was previously reported that up to 128 Russians were returning home.

The flight also brought back to Russia more than 20 seasonal workers, who had been stranded at Haneda Airport in Tokyo for 10 days since 9 April. They went to Japan for work back in January-February and were supposed to return home by 9 April, but their flight to Vladivostok was canceled. They were supported by both Russian expatriates living in Tokyo, and the Russian diplomatic mission.

Parts of Japan were put in a lockdown last week.

On Friday, it was extended to the rest of the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has already killed 224 people and infected more than 10,000.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that there was hope to see the COVID-19 epidemic curve flatten already next week.

"You see, this week showed that the number of cases was growing every day. This means that we have not reached the plateau. Therefore, we will wait until next week," Peskov said in a televised interview.

"Accordingly, next week there is hope that we will see some first signs of reaching the plateau," the Kremlin spokesman added.

He went on to say that further decisions on combating COVID-19 would have to be taken next week.

"Probably, within a week people will have to make decisions on the further regime," Peskov noted.

Iran’s number of coronavirus infections has exceeded 82,000, of which 5,100 have been fatal, an adviser to the country's health minister, Alireza Vahabzadeh, said on Sunday

"[Over the past 24 hours] 1,343 new cases of the coronavirus were detected across the country. To date, there is a total of 82,211 [cases]. Unfortunately, over the past 24 hours, 87 people have died, the death toll rose to 5,118," Vahabzadeh wrote on Twitter.

The health official added that 57,023 people have recovered since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide stands at 2,343,293 with 161,330 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Over 1.9 million coronavirus tests have so far been conducted in Russia since the start of the epidemic, and 132,000 people suspected of having the infection across the country remain under medical monitoring, Russian consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said on Sunday.

"More than 1.9 million tests for coronavirus have been conducted in Russia. There are 132,000 people remaining under medical supervision," the watchdog's press service said in a statement.

Nearly 118,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted within the past 24 hours, the statement specified.

Russia has registered 6,060 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, bringing the total to 42,853, the response center said on Sunday.

"In the last 24 hours, 6,060 cases of COVID-19 infection were registered in 78 regions in Russia. Of these, almost 43 percent did not show clinical symptoms," the center said.

It added that the cumulative 42,853 cases were registered in 85 regions.

Of the new cases, 3,570 were registered in Moscow, 709 in Moscow region, 129 in Nizhny Novgorod Region.

More than 230 patients have recovered over the given period, bringing the total number of cured people to 3,291.

"Over the past 24 hours, 234 people were discharged upon their recovery ... For the entire period, 3,291 have been discharged in Russia," the statement said.

The COVID-19 death toll in Russia rose by 48 to 361 within a day.

The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus diagnosis in Moscow does not increase, remaining stable, the city’s coronavirus response centre said on Sunday.

The center noted that despite the increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the number of hospitalized Muscovites did not change, and thus there was a reserve of capacity for treating patients.

"The number of patients with coronavirus infection hospitalized in Moscow’s hospitals has not increased over the past week. It continues to remain in the city at the level of 1,300 people. Moreover, we do not have a shortage of beds in hospitals. This week we deployed about 4,000 beds, and next week we introduce an additional 5,000, " head of Moscow Healthcare Department Alexey Khripun said.

Meanwhile, according to Moscow's response center, 60 percent of patients in the capital are asymptomatic virus carriers.

"If a week ago, about 40 percent of all cases in Moscow had no symptoms, today 60 percent of cases are asymptomatic virus carriers. And the main task is to isolate them in order to minimize the spread of infection," the statement said.

In recent days, Moscow's daily increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases of coronavirus stands at more than 2,500. However, it is noted that this trend is associated with an increase in the number of daily tests and indicates an improvement in the quality of diagnostics.

Moscow authorities will introduce payments to plasma donors who have COVID-19 antibodies at the rate of 1,250 rubles ($17) for every 150 milliliters of plasma and 5,000 rubles $67 for 600 milliliters, the Moscow Mayor's press service said on Sunday.

"In order to stimulate COVREC plasma donation, the Moscow Government established incentive payments to donors at the rate of 1,250 rubles for every 150 milliliters of plasma or 5,000 rubles for 600 milliliters of plasma. The volume of a single donation should be at least 300 and no more than 600 milliliters (+/- 10%)," the statement read.

At the suggestion of the clinical committee last week, Moscow started to use a new method of combating coronavirus. The first plasma transfusion procedures for patients recovered from coronavirus were performed last week. Experts note that the blood of people who have been infected with coronavirus contains antibodies that help cope with the infection.

Taiwan's government has reported 22 new coronavirus cases, 21 of whom had been on a Taiwanese navy mission to the Pacific island state of Palau last month.

Russian and Serbian military experts have started sanitizing medical facilities in Belgrade and Nis, the third largest city of the Balkan country, to contain the coronavirus infection, the Russian Defence Ministry said Sunday.

"Russian and Serbian specialists from the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection units have started joint disinfection activities in medical facilities in Belgrade and Nis. Russian chemical experts are carrying out sanitation of internal space, and Serbian colleagues are in charge of disinfecting hospitals' adjacent territories ... During the first day, 37 facilities were disinfected in Belgrade, Nis and Blace," the ministry said.

In addition, two teams of physicians and nurses assisted in examining and treating 64 COVID-19 patients in the towns of Leskovac, Zajecar and Cuprija, according to the statement.

At Belgrade’s request in early April, Russia sent seven teams of medical doctors and virologists as well as several planeloads of medical supplies to Serbia to help it curb the infection.

Along with regular disinfection activities, Russian medics share experience with Serbian doctors and help treat patients with the coronavirus.

As of Saturday, Serbia has confirmed 5,994 COVID-19 cases, including 117 deaths.

The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Kyrgyzstan has grown by 48 to 554 within the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 response center told Sputnik on Sunday.

"As of 19 April, 2020, 48 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been registered across the country," the response center's spokesperson said.

The list of infected people in the given period includes 18 medical personnel among others. The total number of doctors diagnosed with COVID-19 has reached 134.

The death toll from the coronavirus in Kyrgyzstan stands at five people, while 13 other patients are in critical condition.

Kyrgyzstan has declared a state of emergency in several cities, including the capital of Bishkek, in light of the pandemic.

The health ministers of the world's largest 20 economies (G20) will hold a video conference on Sunday to address the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis and exchange experiences and practices undertaken to curb the pandemic.

The meeting will build on the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders’ Summit held in March, where health ministers were mandated with sharing national best practices and developing a set of urgent actions for the G20 to jointly combat the pandemic.

The meeting will be chaired by Saudi Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah.

The conference will be joined by guest countries, international and regional organizations including the World Health Organization, the World Bank Group and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development among many others.

Thailand has not registered a single coronavirus-related death in two days, Taweesin Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the national coronavirus response centre, said on Sunday, adding that there were 32 new patients.

"Today 32 new cases of infection have been registered and, for the second day in a row, not a single death from coronavirus infection [was detected]," Visanuyothin said at a daily briefing.

The total COVID-19 count currently stands at 2,765, with 47 deaths. So far, 1,928 people have fully recovered.

"Over the past day alone, 141 people have been discharged from the infectious disease departments of hospitals in Thailand who have had a coronavirus infection," Visanuyothin said.

The spokesman also urged those who have recovered to donate plasma to help the sick.

Meanwhile, neighboring Myanmar has registered 13 new COVID-19 cases over a day, bringing the total number to 107, according to the Health Ministry.

So far, five people have died and five have fully recovered, the ministry added.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 2,458 to 139,897, and the death toll has risen by 184 to 4,294 in the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute said on Sunday.

This a noticeable decrease from Saturday, when the country reported 3,609 new cases and 242 deaths.

According to the latest data, the most cases have been recorded in Bavaria (37,407), North Rhine-Westphalia (28,471) and Baden-Wurttemberg (27,883). Berlin has 5,159 cases.

In total, some 88,000 patients have recovered.

Russian and Italian military specialists have disinfected another two retirement homes in Bergamo province of the Italian region of Lombardy over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defenсe Ministry said Sunday.

"Russian military experts, together with the military personnel of the radiation, chemical and biological protection unit of the Italian armed forces, have disinfected two retirement homes in the towns of Serina and Verdello," the ministry said.

Verdello mayor Fabio Mossali thanked Russian military personnel for their help.

"The work of your specialists is very professional and effective. This is the second such facility that your specialists come to, and we see that the situation in the previously disinfected home for people with disabilities has improved significantly after the sanitation, and the morbidity has decreased," Mossali said, as quoted by the ministry.

In total, Russian and Italian military personnel have sanitized retirement homes in more than 60 Lombardy cities and towns, comprising almost 6.5 million square feet of internal space and 861,000 square feet of roads.

Italy is one of the worst hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak, with nearly 176,000 confirmed cases and more than 23,200 fatalities.