In World News now with a brief on the top COVID-19 headlines around the world.
The confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has passed 1.5 million with 95,455 deaths.
That’s according to a tally by Johns Hop-kins University.
The disease has hit the United States especially hard.
About 460,000 cases have been reported in the US and 16,478 patients have died.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reached every continent except Antarctica.
The vast majority of cases and deaths are now outside mainland China, where the outbreak began.
In China, the Hubei province, home to 11 million people, has been hit hardest.
Most of the infections are centered in its capital city, Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have begun at a wildlife market.
The rate of new cases in mainland China has slowed.
More new cases of coronavirus are now being reported outside mainland China than within, as sustained local transmission is reported in Italy, Spain, the United States and elsewhere.
Spain’s government says it is close to passing the worst of the coronavirus outbreak.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also moved out of intensive care.
A further 6.6 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the US.
Oxfam, the global movement of people, working together to end the injustice of poverty has warned the virus could push half a billion people into poverty.
Some European countries have cautiously started to ease lockdown measures.
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