More than 300,000 people around the world have now died globally from the coronavirus, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 4.4 million cases have also been recorded, according to the university's count.
The actual number of confirmed cases and death tolls may be far higher, given the different ways nations count and publish their reports.
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On Thursday, health workers in Spain held two minutes of silence to remember their colleagues who have fallen ill and died from the coronavirus pandemic.
Doctors and nurses held the observance at work or in front of medical centers across Spain on Thursday. Some held up homemade signs with black ribbons to remember their dead co-workers.
In Italy, more than half of Italy’s 20 regions registered fewer than 10 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, according to Health Ministry figures. In the entire country, 992 new cases were reported in the 24-hour period since Wednesday evening, raising Italy’s overall number of known coronavirus infections to 223,096.
Italy’s known death toll in the pandemic stood at 31,368, with the addition of 262 deaths in the daily tally. Since many people died at home or in care facilities without being tested for COVID-19, authorities say the death toll in the nation where Europe’s outbreak began is doubtlessly considerably higher.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro warned of looming “chaos” as he once again lambasted governors and mayors who introduced lockdowns in cities to limit spread of the new coronavirus.
Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia the lockdowns and closing everything “is the path to failure. It will break Brazil.”
Meanwhile, local news website G1 reported Thursday that 900 people in Rio de Janeiro were waiting for an intensive care bed in one of the state’s overwhelmed units. And Alagoas joined the growing list of states whose intensive-care units are full in several hospitals.
Russia’s capital on Friday is to begin free coronavirus testing for all residents. Under the program announced by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, tests for coronavirus antibodies, a marker of infection, will be conducted at 30 clinics throughout the city. Sobyanin said that 70,000 city residents will receive invitations for testing “every few days” and the city will have the capacity to do 200,000 tests a day by the end of the month.
Britain estimates that 148,000 people in the country had the coronavirus last week -- just over a quarter of 1% of the population. Among front-line health and social care workers, the figure was much higher, at 1.33%.
This is the first result by the national statistics office to calculate how many people in Britain have COVID-19 without being diagnosed. It is based on swab tests from more than 10,000 people participating in a nationwide survey to track the infection and transmission of the virus in the community.
The figure of 148,000 infected people between April 27 and May 10 excludes cases in hospitals and nursing homes. There are currently about 11,000 people hospitalized with the virus in Britain. More than 33,000 people have died with COVID-19 in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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