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More than 660,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus globally and more than 30,000 have died, as the world enters another week of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infections have been reported in more than 200 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
This story is being updated regularly.
Monday's key stories:
Spain toughens virus prevention measures as deaths rise
Spanish authorities have said the country's death toll — second only to Italy — rose by 838 cases overnight, to 6,528.
Madrid's regional government announced an official period of mourning for those who have died, while nationwide infections rose to 78,797 from 72,248 the day before.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday night, announced that all non-essential workers must stay at home for two weeks, the latest government measure in the fight against coronavirus.
Schools, bars, restaurants and shops selling non-essential items have been shut since March 14 and most of the population is house-bound as Spain tries to curb the virus.
Britain orders 10,000 ventilators
The UK Government has placed an order for 10,000 ventilators made by a consortium of companies including Ford, Airbus and Rolls Royce.
Britain's publicly funded National Health Service currently has less than 8,000 ventilators at its disposal, senior Government minister Michael Gove said.
The machines are vital for the care of people who suffer lung failure, which can be one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19.
The move comes after the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several senior ministers announced they had tested positive for the disease.
Some 19,522 confirmed cases have been recorded across the UK, with the nation's death toll reaching 1,228.
Speaking at the government's daily briefing on Sunday, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the country has been placed on an "emergency footing", which was an "unprecedented step in peace time".
"We haven't done anything like this since the Second World War," he said.
Deaths in hard-struck Iran reach 2,640
The Iranian health ministry has announced the country's coronavirus death toll has increased to 2,640, as the Middle East's worst-hit country grapples with the fast-spreading outbreak.
"In the past 24 hours we had 123 deaths and 2,901 people have been infected, bringing the total number of infected people to 38,309," said an adviser to the health minister.
The government has banned intercity travel after warning of a potential surge in coronavirus cases because many Iranians defied calls to cancel travel plans for the Persian New Year holidays that began on March 20.
President Hassan Rouhani urged Iranians to adapt to their new way of life, which he said was likely to continue for some time.
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Modi asks for forgiveness over virus lockdown
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the nation's poor for forgiveness as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 979 on Sunday, with 25 deaths.
Mr Modi announced a three week-lockdown on Tuesday, saying he had "no choice but to make these decisions to fight the coronavirus".
The lockdown — the world's largest — risks heaping further hardship on the quarter of the population who live below the poverty line.
The decision has already stung millions of India's poor, leaving many hungry and forcing jobless migrant labourers to flee cities and walk hundreds of kilometres to their native villages.
Experts have said local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas in cramped conditions with irregular access to clean water.
Belarus president touts tractors and vodka to prevent virus
As most of Europe has shut down due to coronavirus, Belarus has remained open for business, including its national soccer league.
The country's strongman president, Alexander Lukashenko, has played down the scale of the crisis, saying this week the country "could suffer more from panic than the virus itself".
As of late last week, the former Soviet republic had around 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
"I am happy when I watch TV and see people labouring in the fields, driving tractors, and no one is talking about the virus," Mr Lukashenko said, as quoted by local news outlet Belsat.
"There the tractor will cure everyone. The field will heal us all."
Mr Lukashenko has also suggested that vodka and the hot vapour of saunas could also ward of the disease — neither of which have shown any evidence of doing so.
Cases jump in Tokyo as stimulus package announced
Tokyo has confirmed 68 new coronavirus cases, a record daily increase, as the Japanese capital scrambles to prevent a wider outbreak.
More than 1,800 people have been infected across Japan, with 55 deaths as of Sunday afternoon (local time), excluding 712 cases and 10 deaths from a cruise ship that was moored near Tokyo last month.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday promised an unprecedented package of steps to cushion the world's third-biggest economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
The stimulus will exceed that released during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, which was worth 57 trillion yen ($857 billion), he said.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has also asked the tens of millions of people in the city and surrounding regions to avoid non-essential, non-urgent outings until April 12, as the city has become the centre of Japan's coronavirus epidemic.
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Netherlands cases exceed 10,000
Health authorities in the Netherlands said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed 10,000 on Sunday, with 132 new deaths bringing the national total to 771.
Because health authorities are only testing healthcare workers and those who are very sick, the true number of infections is likely to be much higher, said the country's National Institute for Health.
The Dutch government ordered social distancing measures, closed schools and most businesses and banned public gatherings in mid-March.
What the experts are saying about coronavirus:
Topics: infectious-diseases-other, respiratory-diseases, covid-19, government-and-politics, politics-and-government, world-politics, united-kingdom, iran-islamic-republic-of, india, netherlands, belarus, european-union, asia, japan