Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 1.2 mn, death toll passes 65,000

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed the 1.2 million on April 5 as the pandemic swept across the globe.

Johns Hopkins University's website showed the 65,603 people have died from the virus. The total number of people recovered from COVID-19 reached 253,653, according to data.

Mainland China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on April 4, up from 19 a day earlier as the number of cases involving travellers from abroad as well as local transmissions increased, highlighting the difficulty in stamping out the outbreak.

India is restricting the export of most diagnostic testing kits, as coronavirus cases topped 3,350 on April 5. The country has imposed a three-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the disease.

Australian health officials said they were cautiously optimistic about the slowing spread of the coronavirus but warned social distancing restrictions are to stay in place for months.

The total number of deaths from the coronavirus in France reached a new high - 7,560 - on April 4 as the government included more previously unreported deaths in nursing homes.

Queen Elizabeth will call on Britons to take on the challenge and disruption caused by the outbreak with good-humoured resolve when she makes an extremely rare address to rally the nation on April 5.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on April 4 he would ask parliament to extend lockdown measures by 15 days until April 26, as the rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths slowed again in one of the world's worst-hit countries. 

President Donald Trump told Americans to brace for a big spike in coronavirus fatalities in the coming days, as the country faces what he called the toughest two weeks of the pandemic.

More than 306,000 people have tested positive in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally.