This archive report was first published on 13 May 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has become the hardest hit country in terms of the number of fatalities, with a total of 1,367,927 confirmed cases and 82,246 deaths.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the US recorded 1,894 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, a sharp rise after daily tolls fell below 1,000 on Sunday and Monday.
According to an AFP tally of official sources, the global toll has now passed 290,000 lives lost, with Europe accounting for 159,205 of them.
As governments around the world begin to ease lockdown restrictions, concerns are growing about the potential for a second wave of infections.
Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, warned that relaxing coronavirus lockdowns too quickly could have serious consequences, including triggering an outbreak that may not be able to be controlled.
"If a community or a state or region doesn't go by those guidelines and reopens... the consequences could be really serious," Fauci said.
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives has unveiled a $3 trillion virus response package, the largest yet, to fund efforts to fight the pandemic and provide emergency payments to millions of American households.
However, the measure faces opposition in the Republican-held Senate, where leaders have said a new round of emergency funding is not yet needed.
Elsewhere, Russia has begun easing lockdown rules, despite a surge in infections, while India has announced a $270 billion economic stimulus as the Asian giant's economy lumbers back to life.
Iran has said it will reopen mosques for three nights this week, after struggling to contain the outbreak that has killed more than 6,700 people there.
And in China, state media reported that Wuhan plans to conduct virus tests on the entire 11 million population after new cases emerged for the first time in weeks in the city where the outbreak began.
