BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- 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.
The following are the updates on the contagious disease:
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LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "stable" in hospital and has not been diagnosed with pneumonia, a Downing Street spokesman said Tuesday.
"The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits," said the spokesman in a statement.
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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, marking the third day in a row without new cases since the first case was detected on March 9.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Brunei remained at 135. Three more patients have recovered, bringing the total recovered cases to 85.
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ADDIS ABABA -- Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 52 after eight more people were confirmed to have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health disclosed in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"We conducted medical tests on 264 people in the last 24 hours, in which eight of them were tested positive for COVID-19, eventually bringing the total number of cases to 52," said the Ethiopian Ministry of Health.
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BEIJING -- A World Health Organization (WHO) expert Tuesday called for better preparation and solidarity and cooperation between countries to prevent medical systems worldwide from being overloaded amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
For countries that have yet to see an exponential grow of virus cases, they should be prepared "at the highest level they can" to have enough ventilators and medical staff for a possible influx of patients into hospitals, said Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China, at a press conference.
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BANGKOK -- Thailand plans to spend some 1.9 trillion baht (about 58 billion U.S. dollars) on measures to help people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana confirmed the Thai cabinet on Tuesday approved three executive decrees to take care of farmers and local villagers affected by the COVID-19 spread.
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DAKAR -- Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action said on Tuesday that 13 more patients have been cured of COVID-19, bringing the country's total number of patients cured to 105.
Senegalese health minister Aboudulaye Diouf Sarr also said that the country's total confirmed cases stood at 237. Among the 237 confirmed cases, 85 are imported ones.
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BEIJING -- China has successfully reduced the mortality rate of COVID-19 as the disease developed, said Gauden Galea, representative of the World Health Organization in China, at a press conference Tuesday.
Galea said Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, has managed to reduce the mortality rate to around four percent, and the figure in other regions of China has fallen below one percent.
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BRUSSELS -- The number of COVID-19 deaths in Belgium reached 2,035 deaths on Tuesday, according to latest figures released by the Belgian health authorities.
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TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a month-long state of emergency for seven prefectures in an effort to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.
Apart from Tokyo and Osaka, the state of emergency also covers Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo and Fukuoka.
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TRIPOLI -- A United Nations official condemned a recent attack on a hospital in the Libyan capital Tripoli, noting it is "unacceptable" amid the global public health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I am appalled to have learned that heavy shelling hit Tripoli's Al Khadra General Hospital today, injuring at least one health worker and damaging the fully-functioning medical facility," Yacoub El Hillo, UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Libya, said in a statement.
