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In Spain the coronavirus death toll surpasses 10,000, while the United Kingdom records a third consecutive deadliest day and unemployment claims explode across the United States.
This story is being updated regularly. You can also stay informed with the latest episode of the Coronacast podcast.
Friday's top stories:
UK daily deaths rise three days in a row
The United Kingdom's death toll from the coronavirus has risen another 24 per cent, reaching a total of 2,921 deaths.
569 people died on Thursday, up from 563 the day before, with the UK recording its highest number of daily deaths three days in a row.
A total of 163,194 people have now been tested for coronavirus, with 33,718 confirmed cases reported, the health ministry said.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is self-isolating after testing positive himself, has promised to ramp up coronavirus testing, after his government faced criticism for being slow to roll out mass checks for frontline health workers and the wider population.
"[Testing] is the way through: this is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle, this is how we will defeat it in the end," Mr Johnson said.
While Germany has been testing about 500,000 people a week, Britain's current capacity is about 13,000 tests a day, a figure the Government said it was aiming to double by mid-April.
Spain surpasses 10,000 deaths on deadliest day
Spain's death toll passes 10,000 after a record 950 people died overnight, according to the country's Health Ministry.
The number of cases registered rose by about 8 per cent from Wednesday to 110,238 cases in total, the ministry said.
The proportional daily increases have been slowing down in the past few days.
The total death toll reached 10,003, rising by just over 10 per cent, about the same rate as the previous day.
Over 6,000 people were in intensive care, the data showed.
Spain has shed jobs at a record pace since it went into lockdown to fight the coronavirus — some 900,000 workers have lost their job since mid-March, and at least another 620,000 have seen their contracts suspended with temporary layoffs.
Record 6.6 million seek unemployment benefits in the US
More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the last week, doubling a record high set just one week earlier, as layoffs accelerate due to coronavirus.
The report from the US Labor Department showed job cuts are mounting — the figure for last week is much higher than the previous record of 3.3 million reported last week.
The surging layoffs have led many economists to envision as many as 20 million American job losses by the end of April, while the unemployment rate could spike to as high as 15 per cent this month, above the previous record of 10.8 per cent set during a deep recession in 1982.
Stay-at-home orders have forced large and small businesses to curtail output or shut altogether: more than 80 per cent of Americans across 39 states are now under orders to remain at home.
EU Commission apologises to Italy over virus response
The head of the European Commission has apologised to Italy for a lack of solidarity from Europe in tackling its coronavirus crisis, but promised greater help in dealing with the economic fallout.
There has been widespread dismay in Italy over Europe's response to the pandemic, starting with an initial failure to send medical aid, followed by a refusal amongst northern nations to endorse joint bonds to mitigate the cost of recovery.
Italy has recorded 13,155 coronavirus deaths in just six weeks, more than anywhere else in the world, and registered 110,574 confirmed cases, second only to the United States.
In a letter published in the Italian daily La Repubblica, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said too many EU countries had initially focused on their own problems.
"They did not realise that we can only defeat this pandemic together, as a Union. This was harmful and could have been avoided," she wrote.
The main bone of contention is a request by Italy and eight other countries to issue "recovery bonds" on behalf of all euro zone countries to help fund efforts to rebuild national economies that are expected to dive deep into recession.
Conservative leaders in wealthy states such as Germany, the Netherlands and Austria have so far recoiled at the idea of issuing bonds with highly indebted nations, such as Italy.
NFL's Patriots fly masks in on private jet
The owner of the New England Patriots NFL team Robert Kraft arranged for the team plane to transport 1.2 million masks from China to Massachusetts, where one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks has been met with a shortfall of personal protection equipment.
More than 300,000 of the masks are expected to be sent to the hard-hit state of New York.
The Kraft family paid US$2 million ($3.3 million), or half of the cost, for the masks.
More than 1.7 million masks were ordered, but 500,000 of those could not fit on the plane, and will be sent in a later shipment.
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Topics: covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, health, infectious-diseases-other, government-and-politics, world-politics, australia, spain, italy, european-union, united-kingdom, united-states