BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions.
The following are the updates on the contagious disease.
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BERLIN -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Germany rose by 4,974 over the past 24 hours to 108,202 on Thursday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
The reported death toll rose by 246 to 2,107, according to RKI, the federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention.
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CANBERRA -- Australia has recorded over 6,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 51 deaths despite continued signs that the rate of infection has slowed significantly.
According to the Department of Health there had been 6,052 diagnosed cases of the virus in Australia as of Thursday morning, an increase of only 1.6 percent from 5,956 on Wednesday morning.
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NEW DELHI -- India's Health Ministry said on Thursday that the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 166 and the total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 5,734.
"As of 8:00 a.m. local time today 166 deaths related to novel coronavirus have been recorded in the country," the ministry said in a statement.
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ULAN BATOR -- A new suspected case of COVID-19 has been reported in Mongolia's southeastern province of Dornogovi, the country's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) said on Thursday.
"A suspected case of COVID-19 has been reported and isolated in Zamiin-Uud soum (administrative subdivision) of Dornogovi province," Dulmaa Nyamkhuu, head of the NCCD, told a press conference.
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SEOUL -- South Korea reported 39 more COVID-19 cases compared with 24 hours ago as of midnight Thursday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,423.
The newly confirmed cases hovered around 50 for the fourth straight day. Of the total new cases, 23 were imported ones.
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WELLINGTON -- New Zealand reported 23 new confirmed and six new probable cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable infections to 1,239 in the country.
One person has died from COVID-19 so far, and 317 people have recovered, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield from the Ministry of Health told a press conference.
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TRIPOLI -- Six patients have recovered from coronavirus in Libya, the National Center for Disease Control of Libya's UN-backed government said on Wednesday.
"The patient infected with the new coronavirus in Misurata city, as well as the patients who were infected by interacting with her, have recovered," the center said in a statement.
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WASHINGTON -- Nearly 2,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 were recorded in the United States for second day in a row, according to tally of Johns Hopkins University statistics.
The death toll caused by the novel coronavirus has reached 14,739 in the United States, statistics released by the university showed. So far, there have been 429,052 confirmed cases in the United States.
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CAPE TOWN-- South Africa reported on Wednesday five more deaths from coronavirus, the highest number in a single day.
This brought the country's total death toll to 18, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.
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BRASILIA -- The Brazilian Ministry of Health said Wednesday that a total of 15,927 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the country with 800 deaths and the mortality stood at 5 percent.
The infections concentrated in Sao Paulo with 6,708 cases and Rio de Janeiro with 1,938 cases, followed by Ceara, Amazonas, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Parana, and the Federal District.
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NEW YORK -- African Americans and Latinos are more affected by novel coronavirus in the U.S. state of New York compared with other ethnic groups, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.
Part of the reason could be that a large portion of public workers are African Americans and Latinos, who have no choice but to keep doing essential works such as driving a bus, and they often live in dense communities, said Cuomo at a press briefing.
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HARARE -- Zimbabwe on Wednesday reported another COVID-19 death, bringing to three the number of people who have succumbed to the disease in the country.
In an update, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said the deceased, a 50-year-old man from Harare, is one of the 11 cases so far recorded since the onset of the outbreak in the country on March 21.
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QUITO -- Ecuador's Public Health Ministry on Wednesday reported that the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus rose to 4,450, and death toll from the disease increased to 242.
The ministry said it noted an exponential increase in the rate of infection, as 455 new cases were detected in the past 24 hours, and 22 more patients died, registering the highest numbers since the start of the outbreak in Ecuador on Feb. 29.
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BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez on Wednesday announced he was stepping up COVID-19 containment measures in major cities, including extending a shelter-in-place order due to end on April 12.
"There will be no lifting or relaxing" of the lockdown, but "more restrictions than there are today," Fernandez said in an interview on TV Channel 13, declining to provide an end date for the measure.
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NEW YORK -- Global confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 1.5 million on Wednesday afternoon local time, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
The fresh figure reached 1,500,830 as of 5:15 p.m. (2115 GMT) with 87,706 deaths, the CSSE said.
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CAIRO -- The COVID-19 pandemic in Iran continued its week-long downward trend on Wednesday as less than 2,000 new cases were reported. Meanwhile, Turkey's tally of infections with the novel coronavirus was poised to pass 40,000.
Iran reported 1,997 new COVID-19 cases and 121 more deaths from the infectious disease, bringing the tally of infections to 64,586 and the death toll to 3,993.
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JERUSALEM -- Israel on Wednesday reported two new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 73.
The two victims included a 90-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man, both suffering from other serious diseases, the Shaare Zedek and Soroka medical centers said.
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GENEVA -- The Swiss Federal Council announced on Wednesday to extend the confinement measures against the COVID-19 disease until April 26, adding one week to the original date of termination.
The Council will hold the next meeting on April 16 to decide how to relax the measures in place step by step, said President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga.
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MUSCAT -- The Omani government decided on Wednesday to impose a lockdown on the governorate of Muscat to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The lockdown will last from April 10 until April 22, excluding the cases of urgency and those who have special permits for their work.
