(Reuters) – More than 3.34 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 237,137 have died, according to a Reuters tally, as of 0200 GMT on Saturday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
** For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
**For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
EUROPE
**Joggers, cyclists and surfers across Spain emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
**The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll rose 621 to 28,131 as of May 1, just short of Italy which has so far had the world’s second most deadly outbreak of the disease after the United States.
**Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds have named their newborn son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas, partly as a tribute to two of the intensive care doctors who they said had saved the British leader’s life as he battled COVID-19 last month.
**Travellers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus, the health minister said.
**Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow.
**Austrians flocked to newly reopened hairdressers, beauticians and electronics shops, relishing the loosening of a seven-week lockdown.
AMERICAS
**New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed back against what he called premature demands that he reopen the state, saying he knew people were struggling without jobs but that more understanding of the coronavirus was needed.
**Top U.S. health official Anthony Fauci will not testify next week to a congressional committee examining the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, the White House said on Friday, calling it “counterproductive” to have individuals involved in the response testify.
**Imported by the Brazilian elite vacationing in Europe, the new coronavirus is now ravaging the country’s poor, ripping through tightly-packed neighborhoods where the disease is harder to control.
ASIA-PACIFIC
**India has ordered all public and private sector employees to use a government-backed contact tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as it begins easing some of its lockdown measures in districts less affected by the coronavirus.
**A northeastern Chinese city of 10 million people struggling with currently the country’s biggest coronavirus cluster shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions.
**China has published a short animation titled “Once Upon a Virus” mocking the U.S. response to the new coronavirus, using Lego-like figures to represent the two countries.
**Malaysian authorities defended plans to ease lockdown measures next week even as the number of new infections jumped to a two-week high.
**Singapore will start easing some curbs over the next few weeks, authorities said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
**Yemen reported the first case of the coronavirus in a third province late on Friday, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths in one of the world’s most vulnerable countries.
**Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
**Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc <BRKa.N> is being hit hard by the pandemic, posting a record quarterly net loss of nearly $50 billion and saying performance is suffering in several major operating businesses.
**Austria’s central bank expects economic output to shrink more than twice as much this year as it forecast just a month ago as the coronavirus lockdown lasts longer than anticipated, its Governor Robert Holzmann said.
**Ireland will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a “lifeline” as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros, the government announced.
**Corporations are warning on hits to their financial results as the pandemic disrupts supply chains and business activity.
(Compiled by Frances Kerry)
