People pass the Cathedral during the rush hour in Salzburg, Austria, April 3, 2020. The Austrian government has moved to restrict freedom of movement for people, in an effort to slow the onset of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (KERSTIN JOENSSON / AP)

LONDON / PORT-AU-PRINCE / BRIDGETOWN / OTTAWA / MEXICO CITY / CAIRO / WASHINGTON / RIO DE JANEIRO / LISBON / WARSAW / NAIROBI / ADDIS ABABA / MINSK / BERLIN / ZURICH / MOSCOW / PRAGUE / VIENNA / MADRID / BRUSSELS / BUCHAREST / ABIDJAN / PRAGUE  - Austria is preparing for a “resurrection” the day after Easter by reopening some shops in an initial loosening of its coronavirus lockdown, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday, the first European country to outline such plans.

The lockdown has helped reduce the daily increase in infections to 1.6 percent, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said

The Alpine and largely Catholic nation was broadly shut down three weeks ago, with schools, bars, restaurants, theatres, non-essential shops and other gathering places closed. The public has been told to stay at home and work from there if possible.

The lockdown has helped reduce the daily increase in infections to 1.6 percent, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said. The number of people in hospital has stabilised. There have been 12,206 cases and 220 deaths so far in Austria.

“We reacted faster and more restrictively than in other countries and could therefore avoid the worst. But this fast and restrictive reaction now also gives us the possibility to come out of this crisis more quickly,” Kurz, a conservative who governs with the left-wing Greens, told a news conference.

Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy could outline similar plans soon, but Austria is the first European country to give dates and details. Kurz cautioned, however, that his plan was tentative and depended on developments over the next seven days.

“Easter week will be a decisive one for us. It is one that will determine whether the resurrection after Easter that we all hope for can happen as such,” he said.

Kurz urged the public to stick to overall lockdown measures that which are being extended until the end of April.

In this March 22, 2020 file photo, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during his daily COVID-19 press briefing at Downing Street, in London. (IAN VOGLER / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)

UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was undergoing hospital tests on Monday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms for more than 10 days, but the government said he was in good spirits and still in charge.

Johnson, who had been isolating in Downing Street after testing positive for the virus last month, was taken to St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on Sunday night.

His office and ministers said Johnson, 55, continued to run the government, that he was doing well, and that he would undergo routine tests as a precaution. Downing Street declined to say what check-ups he would have.

“On the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as I’m still experiencing coronavirus symptoms,” Johnson said on Twitter.

I’m in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe

 Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister

“I’m in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.”

Johnson’s spokesman said the prime minister had a comfortable night in the hospital and remained there under observation. He described Johnson’s symptoms as “persistent”. These included a high temperature and a cough.

The spokesman urged caution about media reports that Johnson was receiving oxygen treatment but refused to answer directly if he had pneumonia. Johnson continues to receive his ministerial box of government documents, he added.

ALSO READ: UK's plan B if 'Team Johnson' is incapacitated? Answer is unclear

It was not clear how an ill prime minister could lead the government’s response to the outbreak from a hospital. Some medics told Reuters it was unclear what was meant by precautionary tests for COVID-19 complications.

Britain has no formal succession plan should the prime minister become incapacitated.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, 46, chaired the government’s emergency COVID-19 meeting on Monday. Raab will continue to chair the daily meeting while Johnson is in hospital.

Some in the Conservative Party called for Raab to formally step in for the prime minister until he was better.

“Raab should formally deputise for Johnson until he is back to his normal swashbuckling self,” said Paul Goodman, editor of the ConservativeHome website. “There are already problems which the prime minister’s illness will intensify.”

The pound fell against the dollar on news of his admission to hospital, which occurred just as Queen Elizabeth delivered a rallying call on Sunday night to Britons.

The currency rose when Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said he expected him to be back at Downing Street shortly and was trading at US$1.2294.

In this image taken from video and made available by Buckingham Palace, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation and the Commonwealth from Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, April 5, 2020. (PHOTO / BUCKINGHAM PALACE VIA AP)

News of his hospitalization came only after an hour after Queen Elizabeth delivered a rallying call to the British public, saying they would overcome the coronavirus outbreak if they stayed resolute in the face of lockdown and self-isolation, invoking the spirit of World War II.  

In what was only the fifth televised address of her 68-year reign, Elizabeth called upon Britons to show the resolve of their forbears and demonstrate they were as strong as generations of the past.

England’s hospital death toll from the coronavirus rose by 403 to 4,897, the National Health Service said.

The health service said 15 of the 403 patients had no known underlying health conditions.  

Britain will be forced to impose more restrictions on outdoor exercise if people flout lockdown rules designed to curb the virus spread, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Daily exercise, such as walking, running or cycling, is allowed as long as people maintain social distancing. But any other activity such as sunbathing could put others at risk and prolong the lockdown, Hancock said.

Hancock said the timetable to ease restrictions could only be agreed once the spread of the coronavirus had been brought under control. He said fatalities could be "anywhere between about 7,000 or so up to a little over 20,000".

A woman is told to go home by a police officer to stop the spread of the coronavirus, on Primrose Hill in London, April 5, 2020. (MATT DUNHAM / AP)

Meanwhile, Scotland's chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood has resigned after breaching the UK lockdown by visiting her second home, Sky News said on Sunday night.

Calderwood earlier apologized for failing to follow the advice that she has been giving to others to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Global toll nears 70,000

There are now nearly 1.3 million cases of the novel coronavirus with close to 70,000 deaths reported around the world as the pandemic rages.

As of 0300 GMT Monday, nations and regions reported a total of 69,444 deaths from COVID-19, along with 1,273,990 confirmed cases, while more than 260,000 people have recovered, an interactive map maintained by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering showed.

Spain

Spain’s pace of new coronavirus deaths slowed for the fourth day on Monday as the government contemplated a gradual easing of a lockdown in place since mid-March in the nation with the second highest death toll from the global pandemic.

As with worst-hit Italy, data in Spain is giving cause for hope the peak has passed. On Monday, it reported 637 fatalities in the previous 24 hours - a 5 percent increase in total and less than half the pace recorded a week earlier.

“The pandemic’s growth rate is slowing down in almost every region,” Maria Jose Sierra, deputy head of Spain’s health emergency committee, said at a virtual news conference.

Exhausted, but less overwhelmed than a few days ago, doctors echoed her relief: “We have noticed a decline in the number of people coming to the hospital emergency ward,” Christian Vigil, a doctor at Madrid’s October 12 Hospital, told Reuters.

Madrid Clinical Hospital’s head of emergencies, Juan Gonzalez, also spoke of a “drastic” drop in patients coming in.

Though Spaniards were daring to hope for an end to their torment, the overall body count was of course still rising - with Barcelona running out of cremation capacity - and many were becoming frustrated at the lengthy lockdown.

US

The United States on Sunday entered one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis, with government officials warning that the death toll in places such as New York, Michigan and Louisiana was a sign of trouble to come in other states.

Still, governors of eight states resisted issuing stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the respiratory disease, and some churches held large Palm Sunday services in defiance of such orders in their states.

The death toll exceeded 1,200 in the United States in the past day, Johns Hopkins University said Sunday evening. There are more than 337,072 confirmed infections in the United States with 9,633 deaths, said the university.

New York, the hardest-hit state, reported that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before, but there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases. Places such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, DC, are starting to see rising deaths.

President Donald Trump expressed hope that the United States was seeing a “leveling-off” of the coronavirus crisis in some hot spots, citing the drop in deaths from Saturday in New York.

He claimed that some 1.6 million people in the United States have been tested for COVID-19 and received results.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Mike Pence said the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine will be used in a trial covering 3,000 patients at a hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and the results will be tracked in a formal study.

Barbados

Barbados on Sunday reported its first death from the new coronavirus after an 81-year-old man with diabetes died from pneumonia, the country's health minister said.

Barbados now has 56 confirmed coronavirus cases after conducting 527 tests, he added.

Haiti

Haiti on Sunday reported its first death linked to the coronavirus outbreak, with 21 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease in the impoverished Caribbean nation, the Health Ministry said.

France

France's daily death toll from the novel coronavirus fell in the past 24 hours and admissions into intensive care also slowed, the health ministry said on Sunday, thanking citizens for largely respecting a lockdown to halt the spread of the virus.

The health ministry data showed that 357 people died from COVID-19 in hospitals, compared with 441 in the previous 24 hours, taking the total toll in hospitals to 5,889.

It said that 2,189 people had died in nursing homes since March 1, taking France's total death toll to 8,078.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in France since the start of the epidemic rose by 2.7% or 1,873 to 70,478, the ministry said in daily update of the situation.

It added that some 22,361 confirmed or possible cases have been recorded in nursing homes, taking France's total confirmed or possible coronavirus cases to 92,839.

READ MORE: COVID-19: Spain deaths slow; over 1.2 million global cases

Soldiers patrol in front of the Duomo gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy, April 5, 2020. (CLAUDIO FURLAN / LAPRESSE VIA AP)

Italy

Italy reported its lowest daily COVID-19 death toll for more than two weeks on Sunday as authorities began to look ahead to a second phase of the battle against the coronavirus once the lockdown imposed almost a month ago is eventually eased.

The toll from the world's deadliest outbreak reached 15,887, almost a quarter of the global death total, but the rise of 525 from a day earlier was the smallest daily increase since March 19, while the number of patients in badly stretched intensive care units fell for a second day running.

"The curve has reached a plateau and begun to descend," said Silvio Brusaferro, head of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy's top health institute. 

The total number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus rose by 4,316 to 128,948, the lowest increase in five days, which added to signs the epidemic has reached a plateau, about six weeks after it broke out in northern Italy on Feb 21.

Germany

Germany has drawn up a list of measures, including an obligation to wear masks in public, limits on public gatherings and the rapid tracing of infection chains, that officials think should allow life to return to normal after lockdown’s scheduled end on April 19.

The proposals, contained in a draft action plan compilied by the Interior Ministry document and seen by Reuters on Monday, say the measures should be sufficient to keep the number of people infected by each person below 1 even as public life is allowed gradually to resume.

For this to be possible, mechanisms will have to be in place to track more than 80 percent of people an infected person had contact with within 24 hours of diagnosis. In return, schools will be able to reopen on a regional basis and strict border controls will be relaxed, the paper said.

Germany's confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 3,677 in the past 24 hours to 95,391 on Monday, the fourth straight drop in the daily rate of new cases, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.

The number of new cases was lower than the 5,936 new infections reported on Sunday.

The reported death toll rose by 92 to 1,434.

Czech Republic

The Czech government is considering relaxing lockdown measures that have stifled the economy if an apparent levelling off in the growth of new coronavirus infections is confirmed in the coming days, officials said on Monday.

The country was among the first in Europe to declare a state of emergency in March, imposing some of the strictest curbs on public life to prevent the spread of the coronavirus when the proven number of cases was still below 200.

Data for the past few days have shown a single-digit percentage daily rise in new cases, to 4,591 on Monday.

Sunday saw the lowest absolute number of new infections since March 22, although figures compiled at weekends are somewhat flawed by lower testing numbers.

Belgium

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Belgium has risen from 19,691 to 20,814 by Monday morning with 1,632 deaths, according to the latest figures from Belgian health authorities. 

Russia

Russia's coronavirus case tally has risen to 6,343 in the past 24 hours, a record daily increase of 954, the country's crisis response centre said on Monday.

Forty-seven people have died across the country, the center said, adding that Moscow remained the epicentre of the outbreak with 591 new cases.

Switzerland

Switzerland faces a shortage of the raw material needed to make disinfectant to tackle the coronavirus pandemic after the country abandoned its emergency reserve of 10,000 tonnes of ethanol two years ago, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported on Monday.

In 2018, the country ended it longtime practice of stocking ethanol as part of efforts to privatize the country's alcohol market, the Swiss newspaper said.

The decision has contributed to shortages of disinfectant, prompting distilleries, wineries and even beer brewers to begin making it.

Poland

Polish lawmakers on Monday rejected a proposal from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to hold a presidential election on May 10 by postal ballot, increasing uncertainty that the vote can take place at all while the coronavirus pandemic persists.

PiS says the election should go ahead despite the rising number of deaths caused by the pandemic and has proposed replacing polling stations with postal ballots.

Critics accuse it of sacrificing public health in its effort to secure the re-election of incumbent Andrzej Duda, its ally, who is currently ahead in the opinion polls.

Poland is still at the beginning of its fight with the coronavirus, with the peak of infections expected in May and June, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday.

Speaking to the lower house of parliament, Morawiecki said Poland has some shortages of medical equipment. It plans to increase within days the number of daily coronavirus tests to 8,000-9,000 from the current 6,000-7,000, he said.

Poland has reported 4,201 coronavirus cases, including 98 deaths.

Ireland

Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help out during the coronavirus crisis, his office said on Sunday.

According to a report in the Irish Times, Varadkar is helping out with phone assessments. Anybody who may have been exposed to the virus is initially assessed over the phone.

Migrants make their way inside a migrant facility at Malakasa village, north of Athens, April 5, 2020. (YORGOS KARAHALIS / AP)

Greece

Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility on its mainland after a 53-year-old man, who lives with his family at the Malakasa camp, tested positive for the new coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday.

Greece confirmed 62 new cases of COVID-19 later in the day, bringing the total in the country to 1,735. Seventy three people have died.

No cases have been recorded in camps on Greek islands so far. The camp in Malakasa, 40 km northeast of Athens, will be put into quarantine for two weeks, the ministry said on Sunday.

Romania 

Romania’s government will extend its state of emergency by another 30 days after the current period ending next week, to help halt the spread of the new coronavirus, President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday.

“We need to do this again. It’s a necessity. People should understand that without this measure, the virus cannot be stopped,” Iohannis told a video briefing.

Romania has so far recorded 4,057 confirmed cases of infection and 157 deaths.

Mexico

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador unveiled a plan on Sunday to lift the economy out of the coronavirus crisis, vowing to help the poor and create jobs, but his promise of fiscal discipline sparked criticism that the measures fell far short of what was needed.

Obrador pledged Mexico would create 2 million new jobs in the next nine months and boost small business and housing loans. He also vowed to tighten public sector austerity to avoid debt.

The president also said that Mexico would announced next week investments in the energy sector worth 339 billion pesos (US$13.5 billion) to boost the economy.

Mexico on Sunday had registered 2,143 cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, an increase of 253 cases from a day earlier, the health ministry said.

The number of deaths linked to the virus rose by 15 to 94.

Panama

Panama's health ministry on Sunday registered 1,988 cases of the novel coronavirus in the Central American country, a rise of 187 cases from a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by eight to 54.

Brazil

Brazil's Health Ministry said on Sunday the country's death toll from COVID-19 has climbed to 486, as 11,130 people tested positive to the coronavirus disease.

In the past 24 hours, 54 patients died, up 12.5 percent compared with the day before, and 852 new infections were detected, placing the mortality rate at 4.4 percent, said the authorities.

Staff wearing protective face shields work at a supermarket in Johannesburg, South Africa, April 5, 2020. (CHEN CHENG / XINHUA)

South Africa

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa has risen to 1,655, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the country reported two more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 11.

The total number of COVID-19 tests conducted to date is 56,873, an increase of 2,936 from those reported on Saturday, Mkhize said.

Sao Tome and Principe

The Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Jorge Bom Jesus, announced that 4 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in samples sent to Gabon for testing. A special ministerial meeting was convened to study the introduction of stricter anti-epidemic measures. The flights between Sao Tome and Principe are suspended.

Ivory Coast 

Ivory Coast police on Monday clashed with protesters who had begun dismantling a half-built coronavirus testing centre, afraid that people using the facility would spread the epidemic through their district.

More than 100 residents in Yopougon, a neighbourhood of the commercial capital Abidjan, started pulling apart the hanger-like structure on Sunday and built barricades out of burning tyres nearby.

A crowd returned on Monday, throwing rocks at police who dispersed it with tear gas.

“They want to kill us. We don’t want this centre here,” said protester Joel Blehi as he sheltered by a pharmacy after a gas canister was fired in his direction.

Police said the hostility arose from a misunderstanding that patients with COVID-19 would be treated at the centre.

“There’s been a lack of communication. It’s more like a testing centre for residents,” police spokesman Charlemagne Bleu said.

The violence is the first sign of community resistance to the coronavirus response in Ivory Coast, where authorities have closed schools, places of worship and most shops and imposed a night-time curfew. The country has registered 261 confirmed cases and three deaths.

The centre is one of several being built in Abidjan for voluntary mass coronavirus testing, the health ministry said.

No protesters or police were harmed in the clashes, but four arrests were made, Bleu said.

Canada

The number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada has jumped by just over 20 percent to 258 in a day, officials said on Sunday, while Ottawa offered full-time jobs to reservists in the armed forces.

By 11:05 eastern time (1505 GMT), the total number of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen to 14,426, the public health agency said.

Guatemala

Guatemala has asked the United States to limit the deportations of immigrants to the Central American country to 25 persons per plane due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, Guatemalan Health Minister Hugo Monroy said on Sunday.

Sunday's request comes after two deported migrants, who arrived without virus symptoms, were hospitalized in recent weeks after testing positive.

Guatemala has recorded 70 infections and three deaths from the virus.

READ MORE: Guatemala seeks curbs on US deportation of immigrants

Libya

Mahmoud Jibril, who abandoned Muammar Gaddafi to become Libya's rebel prime minister during the 2011 revolution, died on Sunday after contracting the novel coronavirus, an aide and his party said.

Before Jibril passed away, Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli had confirmed 18 coronavirus cases in the country and one death.

Malta

Some 1,000 African migrants were placed under mandatory quarantine on Sunday after an outbreak of COVID-19 and their camp at Hal Far in the south of Malta was surrounded by police and army trucks to ensure compliance.

Health Minister Chris Fearne told reporters that eight cases had been confirmed in two days and a risk assessment showed the possibility that the disease had spread to a number of other migrants since people in the camp lived in close proximity.

Meanwhile, the Maltese government has approved the opening of a spring hunting season, despite health authorities advising people to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Malta has reported 227 COVID-19 cases but no fatalities.

Chile

Chile's Health Ministry on Sunday said 4,471 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 34 have died from the disease.

While 310 new cases were detected, the figures "show a constant downward trend" in the rate of infection, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

The latest results led the government to extend a total quarantine in 14 cities around the country, and cordon off areas with a rising number of cases with the help of the police and military personnel. It also lifted the full quarantine in two locations, Puerto Williams and Rapa Nui.

Billboards reading "Let's stay home together" are seen in Cairo, Egypt, April 5, 2020. (WU HUIWO / XINHUA)

Egypt

The Egyptian Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday 103 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the country to 1,173.

Seven Egyptians died from the disease on Sunday, increasing the death toll to 78, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement. 

He added that six Egyptians recovered and were discharged from the isolation hospital, raising the number of recoveries in Egypt to 247.

Portugal

Portuguese Minister of Health Marta Temido said on Sunday that there are 1,332 health professionals infected by COVID-19 in the country, according to Lusa News Agency.

The country has recorded 295 deaths associated with COVID-19 and 11,278 cases of infection, according to the epidemiological bulletin released by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

Albania

Over 200 people were punished in Albania in the last 24 hours for violating the restrictive measures set up by the Albanian government in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the State Police said in a statement on Sunday.

So far, Albania has registered a total of 361 cases, and the death toll stood at 20. A total of 104 people have fully recovered following treatment, according to the Public Health Institute.  

Finland

Finnish Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni on Sunday gave "well over three months" as a tolerable limit whereafter the restoration of economic life will be very difficult, in the wake of the current restrictions applied to combat COVID-19.

As of Sunday afternoon, Finland has confirmed 1,927 COVID-19 infections, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

Rwanda

Rwandan cabinet members and other senior government officials have resolved to forfeit their April salary to show solidarity with their fellow Rwandans under COVID-19 lockdown in the country, the Prime Minister's Office said Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the Rwandan Ministry of Health reported two new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's tally to 104.

The health ministry also said four people were discharged after recovery.

Algeria

Algeria's health officials on Sunday said that there has been a drop in the increase of infections with COVID-19 for the second day in a row.

The death toll of COVID-19 in the country reached 152, while 1,320 cases have been confirmed, officials said.

Netherlands

The daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital in the Netherlands as well as newly reported deaths was decreasing, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) announced on Sunday.

The total number of confirmed cases who are or were admitted to hospital grew by 253 in the past 24 hours to 6,875, the lowest daily figure in two weeks.

The number of reported daily deaths was 115, bringing the total to 1,766 in the country. The last time this daily number was that low was last Monday, when the death toll was 93.

Nationwide, the total number of confirmed cases grew by 1,224 to 17,851 as of Sunday.

A health worker disinfects a road in Rabat, Morocco, April 5, 2020. (CHADI / XINHUA)

Morocco

A total of 107 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Sunday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 990, said the Ministry of Health.

A total of 69 deaths from COVID-19 were reported, while 71 patients have recovered, according to the ministry.

Sudan

Sudan's Health Ministry on Sunday announced two new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 12. 

Slovenia

The Slovenian government announced on Sunday an extension of the lockdown that was put into place three weeks ago to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

"The measures are working and will last for at least two to four more weeks," government spokesman jello Kacin said at a daily briefing.

The number of confirmed cases in Slovenia rose by 20 to 997 by Sunday, including 28 coronavirus-related deaths.

Djibouti

Djibouti's Ministry of Health (MoH) said on Sunday the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the horn of Africa nation has risen to 59.

Eight more people were confirmed on Sunday to have been infected with COVID-19 virus.

Kenya

The Kenyan government on Sunday extended the ban on international flights for 30 more days, effective Monday, to help curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 16 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of those infected to 142.

Belarus

The Belarusian Health Ministry said Sunday that the number of COVID-19 cases had risen to 562 in the country, up about 28 percent from the previous day.