The latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

Reported cases of the coronavirus have

crossed 2.7 million globally and 189,970 people have died,

according to a Reuters tally as of 0200 GMT on Friday.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

AMERICAS

* The US death toll from the novel coronavirus is expected to

reach 50 000 on Friday, doubling in 10 days and the highest in

the world, according to a Reuters tally.

* Doctors and health experts urged people not to drink or inject

disinfectant after President Trump suggested scientists should

investigate inserting it into the body as a way to cure

Covid-19.

* After passing $3 trillion of coronavirus relief in a rare

seven-week run of bipartisanship, the US Congress is headed

back to its normal state of conflict, with leading Republicans

lining up against aid for cities and states that Democrats say

is essential.

* The United States plans to begin testing some migrants in

detention before deporting them, an official said, after

infections among deportees in Guatemala, Haiti and Mexico.

* While parts of Latin America enter the toughest phase of the

pandemic, Costa Rica has for the past week reported a steady

fall in the number of people currently infected.

* El Salvador will offer more than a half a billion dollars in

new loans to businesses, salary subsides and a new food program,

officials said.

* Ecuador's health minister said the country's case total was

twice as high as previously confirmed, as authorities added

11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing.

* Cuba's decades-old rationing system is staging a comeback in a

bid to prevent virus transmission during frantic shopping hunts.

The initiative 'Empty Chairs' have set up almost 800 chairs in front of the Brandenburg Gate to point out the difficult situation of their industry in Berlin, Germany. Picture: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP

EUROPE

* France's president and Germany's Chancellor will help launch a

global initiative on Friday to accelerate work on drugs, tests

and vaccines and to share them around the world, the World

Health Organization said, but the United States said it will not

take part.

* The crisis does not change European priorities in the Brexit

negotiations, France's European affairs minister said.

* Hungary plans to replace the current lockdown that imposes a

blanket curfew over the population with a more fine-tuned

version from early May.

* The Polish government said schools and kindergartens would

remain closed until May 24 and said a second wave of infections

could lie ahead.

Reuters heatmap

* The Belgian government has decided not to use apps to trace

the path of coronavirus infections, its telecommunications

minister said, after initially pushing the idea. Belgium has

recorded 42,797 cases and 6,490 deaths.

* Spain's daily deaths fell to the lowest in more than a month

as the government prepared criteria to ease one of Europe's

strictest lockdowns from next month.

People wear masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus take a selfie at Tocadero square close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Picture: Michel Euler/AP

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Thousands of people in overcrowded quarantine centres in

government buildings across India are complaining about poor

food and sanitation and lack of social distancing, inmates and

officials say. Some are trying to escape.

* Parts of India have recorded dramatic falls in mortality rates

after a nationwide lockdown was imposed, suggesting there has

not been an undetected surge in virus-related deaths.

* South Korea outlined guidelines for a two-year return to a

post-coronavirus normality including flexible working, bookings

on public transport and quick restaurant meals in a country that

has been a role model in containing Covid-19.

* China is preparing to buy more than 30 million tonnes of crops

for state stockpiles to help protect itself from supply chain

disruptions.

* Thousands of Hong Kong students were among the first in the

world to take their final secondary school exams on Friday, all

wearing face masks and having their temperatures checked.

* Australia will push for an international investigation into

the coronavirus pandemic at next month's annual meeting of the

World Health Assembly.

A driver gives a sample for Covid-19 coronavirus testing at a drive-through in Osaka, western Japan. Picture: Kyodo News via AP

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday with Islam's holiest

sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty.

* Lebanon's higher defence council advised the government to

extend a lockdown until May 10, but to begin gradually easing

restrictions in the coming weeks.

* The governors of Nigeria's 36 states agreed to ban interstate

movement for two weeks.

* Algeria will ease confinement measures from the first day of

the holy month of Ramadan on Friday.

* Israel's religiously devout Jews, who traditionally shun the

use of internet or smartphones, are increasingly going online to

shop, study and video chat.

Residents of the Malawi village of Tomali wait to have their young children become test subjects for the world's first vaccine against malaria in a pilot program. The World Health Organization is now warning that the battle against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, where it routinely kills hundreds of thousands a year, could be set back 20 years as countries focus almost all their energy and resources on containing the coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Jerome Delay/AP