The confirmed death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic climbed beyond 188,000 overnight, with the number of confirmed infections approaching 2.7 million.
But there's new evidence there could have been that many infected in just New York alone.
Here are the latest developments from around the world overnight.
Europe
United Kingdom
The UK's economy is crumbling under the strain of the coronavirus lockdown and government borrowing is soaring to the highest levels in peacetime history.
Bank of England interest-rate setter Jan Vlieghe said the damage was worse than anything Britain has experienced in the past hundred years at least.
"We are experiencing an economic contraction that is faster and deeper than anything we have seen in the past century, or possibly several centuries," Vlieghe said.
The recovery, he said, was unlikely to be swift.
A Reuters poll of economists on Thursday pointed to a roughly 13 percent contraction in economic output in the current quarter, which would be the largest since records began after World War Two.
Nearly 19,000 Brits have been killed in the pandemic.
France
France offered retailers some relief on Thursday, saying it wanted them to reopen when a nationwide lockdown ends on May 11, though some curbs could remain in certain areas to delay a new wave of the coronavirus.
France has suffered the world's fourth-highest reported coronavirus death toll of more than 21,000, with more than 158,000 infections.
Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Thursday to show endurance and discipline to get through the coronavirus pandemic that is "still at the beginning", and called for a bigger European Union budget to support economic recovery in the bloc.
Merkel is worried that Germans are relaxing their social distancing efforts after the federal and regional governments agreed to reopen some shops this week.
Germany has the fifth highest COVID-19 caseload behind the United States, Spain, Italy and France, but has kept fatalities (5094) down after early and extensive testing.
Italy
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 464 on Thursday, against 437 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, but the daily tally of new infections declined to 2646 from 3,370 on Wednesday.
The total official death toll since the outbreak came to light on February 21 now stands at 25,549, the agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States.
Spain
With Europe's second highest death toll of 22,157 and the world's second most cases at 213,024, Spain has some of the toughest restrictions in Europe. But a slowdown in the infection rate has prompted an easing of some measures.
On Tuesday night, after initially ruling out recreational walks for children, the government bowed to public pressure - including pot-banging protests on balconies - and allowed short, supervised outings for the first time in more than a month.
Americas
United States
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday a screening of 3000 people found nearly 14 percent tested positive for antibodies for the novel coronavirus, suggesting that 2.7 million residents across the state may have been infected with the disease.
Another 4.4 million America have filed for unemployment benefits. This means more than 15 percent of the US workforce have lost their jobs since mid-March.
A handful of Republican-led states are reopening their economies, despite warnings from health experts of a potential new surge in infections. Economists also warn that there is no guarantee that Americans will feel safe to visit shopping malls.
The US has said it may "never return" funding to the World Health Organization.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News there needed to be "a structural fix of the WHO" to correct its "shortcomings."
Asked if he was not ruling out a change in leadership of the WHO, Pompeo replied: "Even more than that, it may be the case that the United States can never return to underwriting, having US taxpayer dollars go to the WHO."
The WHO has denied the Trump administration's charges and China insists it has been transparent and open.
The possibility of the US ceasing its funding definitively to the global body is contingent upon Trump succeeding in his bid for re-election in the November presidential vote, against the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Asia
Japan
Nearly 50 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan's Nagasaki have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising concern about the strain on the city's hospitals if conditions worsen for those infected.
India
The sprawling slums of Dharavi in the heart of India's financial capital Mumbai have become a battleground for COVID-19 as health workers try desperately to stem the spread of the coronavirus in its dense and unsanitary bylanes.
Crowds formed while market vendors and customers alike were jostling for space when Reuters visited on Wednesday, largely ignoring the government's order to lockdown the country and to stay at home. Nearby a man was selling loose face masks.
Authorities say that slums and crowded market areas like these are ticking time bombs which could lead to an explosion of cases anytime in a city which has already become India's coronavirus hotspot.
Cases in Mumbai have ticked up to 2724, including 112 deaths, making up more than 15 percent of India's 17,000 plus cases, as of Sunday (April 19). Dharavi, one of Asia's biggest slums, has already reported 138 cases, including 11 deaths, till Sunday, and experts fear the number could go much higher in the coming weeks.
Malaysia
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced an extension to the country's partial coronavirus lockdown on Thursday.
In a televised address, Muhyiddin said that the six-week closure of non-essential services and schools that was due to end April 28 will be extended by another two weeks until May 12.
As of Thursday, Malaysia reported 5,603 cases of the coronavirus and 95 deaths.
Africa and the Middle East
African Union (AU) special envoy Tidjane Thiam on Thursday said a widespread outbreak of the new coronavirus in Africa would be a disaster for the continent.
Africa, with 1.8 hospital beds per 1000 people, has "no capacity" to treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, he said in an online conference.
As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts this week, Pakistani doctors warned the government and clerics that it was ill-advised to allow prayer congregations at mosques.
Pakistan lifted precautionary restrictions on congregational prayers on Saturday, after several clashes between police and worshippers and with clerics rejecting such limitations.
The question now is whether other Muslim nations will also relent and relax bans on congregations in the light of pressure from local religious figures.
Medical developments
Scientists in Britain began clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday as other vaccine developers across Europe also stepped up work on experimental shots against the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
A team at Britain's Oxford University dosed the first volunteers in a trial of their vaccine - called "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19" - while Italy's ReiThera, Germany's Leukocare and Belgium's Univercells said they were working together on another potential shot and aimed to start trials in a few months.
Britain's GSK and France's Sanofi last week announced a similar agreement to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, with trials starting in the second half of the year.
As many as 100 potential COVID-19 candidate vaccines are now under development by biotech and research teams around the world
Reuters / APTN / Newshub.
