Covid-19 - The 2020 European Athletics Championships cancelled

The global total of confirmed cases is approaching 2.7m, standing at 2,699,338 while 188,437 deaths have been recorded, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Ecuador’s case total is twice as high as previously confirmed, Ecuador’s health minister has said, as authorities added 11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing.

Algeria has become the latest country to announce it will ease confinement measures from the first day of the holy month of Ramadan on Friday, replacing a full lockdown with a curfew in Bilda and shortening curfews in nine provinces.

Four people in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing total number of cases in the settlement to five.

The 2020 European Athletics Championships, due to be held in Paris at the end of August, have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Armenia commemorated its genocide anniversary in lockdown,switching off street lights and chiming church bells in place of the traditional annual torch-lit procession to mark 105 years since the genocide by Ottoman Turks.

Dubai has become the latest city to ease lockdown restrictions, announcing that cafes, restaurants and shopping malls are to reopen with a maximum capacity of 30 per cent. Public transportation services will resume from 26 April.

Peru has passed 20,000 coronavirus cases, reaching 20,914 on Thursday. The country has recorded 572 deaths, and the number of recorded coronavirus cases in the country has doubled in the last nine days.