Worldwide cases now at more than one million

Tens of thousands of deaths recorded as pandemic sweeps across the globe

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than one million people worldwide and over 53,000 deaths have been recorded.

Here is the latest on the situation from around the world:

THAILAND: The government has banned all public gatherings to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The order prohibits people from public gatherings, carrying out activities, or gathering for unlawful purposes in a manner that risks spreading the coronavirus.

It also bans any act that aggravates people’s suffering and pranks to spread the virus. That is an apparent reference to anti-social actions such as spreading saliva on elevator buttons.

Family gatherings at homes and civic activities carried out according to safe social distancing guidelines are allowed.

FRANCE: France’s prime minister said he and his government colleagues are “fighting hour by hour” to ward off shortages of essential drugs used to keep Covid-19 patients alive in intensive care.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that worldwide usage of essential drugs and disposable equipment, such as ventilator mouthpieces, used by intensive care units is “exploding in unimaginable proportions”, with a “nearly 2,000% increase” in demand “because it is happening everywhere in the world and at the same time”.

In France, medics have identified eight drugs, in particular, that are essential for ICUs to keep treating the waves of gravely ill Covid-19 patients who need breathing assistance and other forms of life support, he said. Those drugs include painkillers and sedatives.

Mr Philippe said France has sufficient stocks of some of the key ICU drugs but “more limited” quantities of others, causing “real” worry for medics.

INDIA: To bolster morale and spirit, India’s prime minister has urged the country’s 1.3 billion people to switch off the lights in their home for nine minutes on Sunday night and light candles, lamps and even use mobile torches standing in their balconies.

In a video message, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said such a gesture will dispel the darkness created by

“It is happening everywhere in the world and at the same time. PRIME MINISTER EDOUARD PHILIPPE

coronavirus and show that people are together during hard times.

He said social distancing was the only way to break the chain of coronavirus, which has so far claimed 53 lives in India.

Mr Modi ordered a three-week lockdown across the country on March 24 to stop a massive outbreak of coronavirus infections.

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea said more than 27,000 people are under self-quarantine in the country after it strengthened border controls to slow coronavirus infections linked to international arrivals.

Park Jong-hyun, an official from the ministry of the interior and safety, said that 19,567 of those under selfquarantine have recently returned from overseas while another 7,499 were isolated after contacting virus carriers.

South Korea has been enforcing 14-day quarantines on all passengers arriving from overseas since Wednesday, expanding measures that had already been applied to South Korean nationals and long-term stay foreigners coming from Europe and the United States.