by BERNAMA 

BEIJING — The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions.

Xinhua news agency reported that the following are the updates on the contagious disease.

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• WASHINGTON — The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has risen above 1 million, according to the new tally from Johns Hopkins University on Thursday afternoon.

A total of 1,002,159 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus across the world, with a death toll of 51,485, while more than 200,000 patients have recovered, showed the tally updated by the university’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

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• BRASILIA — The death toll from the novel coronavirus climbed to 299 in Brazil as the number of confirmed cases went from 6,836 to 7,910, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

In the past 24 hours, 59 COVID-19 patients died, raising the mortality rate to 3.8 percent, and 1,074 people tested positive, slightly less than the 1,119 new cases reported in the previous 24-hour period.

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• PARIS — French hospitals registered a one-day loss of 471 coronavirus patients, taking the total to 4,503, while some 900 dependant elder people living at nursing homes had died of the virus since the epidemic began, a health official said on Thursday.

In total, 59,105 people had tested positive for the virus, up by 2,116 in one day, versus an increase of 4,861 on Wednesday, said Director General of Health Jerome Salomon at the daily conference on the epidemic.

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• TRIPOLI — Libya’s National Center for Disease Control on Thursday announced the first death from COVID-19.

“The Reference Laboratory of Society Health of the National Center for Disease Control received a sample taken from an 85-year-old woman after she passed away. The sample tested positive for the new coronavirus,” the center said in a statement.

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• CAIRO — The Egyptian Health Ministry announced in a statement on Thursday the death of six Egyptians of COVID-19, raising the death toll of the novel coronavirus in the country to 58.

As many as 86 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Egypt on Thursday, increasing the number of discovered infections among locals and foreigners since mid-February to 865, said the ministry’s spokesman Khaled Megahed in the statement.

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• JERUSALEM — Israel reported 765 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the daily highest so far, bringing the total number to 6,857, said the Ministry of Health.

It also announces five new death cases from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 36. The five deceased, aged 77 to 98, suffered from other serious illnesses.

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• BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed two more deaths from COVID-19 and 44 new cases, bringing the total number of the infections to 772.

The new cases are two in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, 12 in Sulaimaniyah, 10 in Najaf, seven in Karbala, five each in Kirkuk and Basra, two in Erbil and one in Diwaniyah, the ministry said in a statement.

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• LONDON — The British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed Thursday a range of targeted temporary measures designed as a stop-gap to quickly support users of certain consumer credit products who are impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

For those consumers facing difficulties with their finances, the financial watchdog proposed firms to offer a temporary payment freeze of up to three months on loans and credit cards.

For those who have been hit financially by coronavirus and already have an arranged overdraft on their main personal current account, up to £500 (about US$618.8) will be charged at zero interest for up to three months, the FCA suggested.