BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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DUBLIN -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Tuesday that the new coronavirus levels in the country are not low enough to allow any easing of restrictions on May 5, the date when the current lockdown measures in Ireland are supposed to end.
Varadkar made the remarks while chairing a cabinet meeting to review the pandemic situation in the country, according to local media reports.
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BRUSSELS/BERLIN -- Despite the fact that the European Region on WHO dashboard has accounted for more than half of the over 200,000 global COVID-19 deaths, many European countries are forced to fight a two-front battle to save both life and livelihood amid deepening economic woes.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined on Tuesday the government's plan for gradual transition to normalcy after lifting the nationwide lockdown on May 4.
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TUNIS -- The Tunisian Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday eight new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 975.
Following a total of 396 lab tests in the last 24 hours, 16 cases tested positive, of which eight were new cases and eight were previously confirmed cases who were still infected with this virus, according to the ministry's daily epidemiological report.
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WASHINGTON -- Over 1 million people in the United States have been infected with COVID-19, with the death toll exceeding 57,000 on Tuesday, showed the latest data.
The country's number of COVID-19 cases topped 1 million Tuesday afternoon, reaching 1,002,498 as of 1:55 p.m. (1755 GMT), with a total of 57,266 deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
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CAIRO -- The death toll from COVID-19 in Turkey approached 3,000 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Chinese team of medical experts started working with their Kuwaiti counterparts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of fatalities from the novel coronavirus in Turkey, the worst-hit country in the Middle East, surged to 2,992 after 92 more deaths were reported, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
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DAKAR -- The Senegalese government on Tuesday launched a food aid distribution operation to help 1 million vulnerable households affected by COVID-19.
"We have just launched officially the delivery of food kits. This operation marks the start of operations across the country," said Minister of Community Development, Social and Territorial Equity Mansour Faye at a launch ceremony in the presence of several beneficiaries as well as local administrative authorities and elected officials in Pikine, a city east to Dakar.
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PRAGUE -- The Czech Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday approved the extension of the country's state of emergency until May 17, the lower house of Parliament announced.
The current state of emergency was supposed to end on April 30. Prime Minister Andrej Babis's government had asked for an extension until May 25.
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JERUSALEM -- The total number of coronavirus cases in Israel rose on Tuesday by 173 to 15,728, the state's Ministry of Health said.
The death toll from COVID-19 infection in Israel increased from 204 to 210, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 126 to 116.
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RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia's coronavirus cases exceeded 20,000 on Tuesday after 1,266 new infections were confirmed, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Mohammed Al Abdulaali, spokesman of the health ministry, told the daily press briefing that 66 percent of the new cases were detected through random screening, while 77 percent of them are non-Saudis.
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AMMAN -- The World Bank on Tuesday approved a 20-million-U.S.-dollar project to help Jordan ease the health impacts of the coronavirus epidemic.
The new project, named "COVID-19 Emergency Response," will support Jordan's health ministry in preventing, detecting, and responding to the threat posed by the pandemic and strengthening public health preparedness, according to a statement by the World Bank, a copy of which was obtained by Xinhua.
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