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At least 1 000 people have now died in Spain from the coronavirus, while the total number of infections in the country has reached almost 20 000.

The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has also risen in the last 24 hours to more than 3 400, overtaking the total number of deaths so far registered in China, officials said.

More than 209 000 people have now been infected by the coronavirus globally and more than 8 700 have died, according to the World Health Organisation.

At least 86 000 have recovered from Covid-19, according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins University in the US.

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus at the heart of the global pandemic was first detected, has recorded a second consecutive day with no new confirmed or suspected cases.

Nationwide, a total of 39 confirmed cases and 31 suspected cases were recorded yesterday, the health ministry said, all of them brought from overseas.

Three more deaths were also registered, bringing China’s total to 3 248, a figure surpassed on Thursday by Italy as the highest in a single nation.

South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said yesterday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had risen by 52 to 202, with the first cases recorded in the Free State province.

The virus has multiplied in Africa more slowly than in Asia or Europe, but the number of cases has started to rise more rapidly in South Africa in recent days.

Singapore reported 40 new coronavirus cases, mainly imported infections from the United Kingdom, and advised further social distancing measures in its fight against the pandemic.

Its tally of cases stands at 385, with no deaths.

The health ministry said all gatherings of 250 people or more must be cancelled. Among other measures, it asked employers to facilitate working from home and stagger working hours to reduce contact between staff.

Spain’s death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared to 1 002 from 767, the country’s health emergencies chief Fernando Simon said.

The number of registered cases in the country rose to 19 980 yesterday from 17 147 on Thursday, Simon said. 

The number of coronavirus cases recorded in Belgium surged past 2 000, while the number of deaths attributed to the Covid-19 disease jumped by 16 to a total of 37.

According to the country’s national crisis centre, 462 new confirmed cases of the virus have been reported, bringing the total to 2 257 in a country of 11.4 million people.

Britain said its scramble to produce thousands of ventilators to fight the coronavirus outbreak was achieving results as top companies have already produced a prototype which should be ready for use in hospitals by the end of next week. “More than half a dozen companies have already made one in prototype, to check with us that we are happy with the quality ,” Matt Hancock, the health minister, said. 

The UK has recorded 3 269 positive cases so far. 

Saudi Arabia has suspended the holding of daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayers inside and outside the walls of the two mosques in Mecca and Medina to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The kingdom recorded 36 new infections on Thursday, bringing its total to 274 with no deaths so far.  — Al Jazeera