DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* More than 5.76 million people have been reported infected with the novel coronavirus globally and 355,880 have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1536 GMT on Thursday.

EUROPE

* The coronavirus lockdown will ease next week for most of Britain's population, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

* France will allow restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen from June 2, though with more restrictions in Paris than elsewhere.

* Russia's capital city Moscow reported its lowest daily increase in infections since April 23, but some critics raised questions over some of Russia's reported data.

* Spain's Valencia region will progress to the next phase of a gradual exit from one of Europe's strictest lockdowns.

* Sending children back to schools and day care centres in Denmark, the first country in Europe to do so, did not lead to an increase in coronavirus infections, according to official data, confirming similar findings from Finland.

AMERICAS

* The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits held above two million last week for a 10th straight week amid job cuts by US state and local governments.

* A coronavirus quarantine will continue in Colombia's capital Bogota until at least June 15.

* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he disagrees with the Bank of Mexico's forecasts for a major recession caused by the pandemic and predicted that the economy will instead recover soon.

* Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed into law 60-billion-real ($A17 billion) of federal government aid to states and municipalities, but vetoed a section on public servants' wages.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China has room to stimulate the economy, but the government does not want to open the "floodgates", Premier Li Keqiang said.

* Indonesia will continue to prescribe two anti-malaria drugs for coronavirus patients but monitor their use closely, a spokesman for Indonesia COVID-19 task force said.

* Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte approved a recommendation to ease the lockdown in the capital Manila from June 1.

* Australia will divert $A280 million in overseas aid this year to bolster the response of its closest neighbours to the pandemic.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Cases of community transmission of the coronavirus are growing in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, and a new strategy for testing is needed to prevent this, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.

* Kenya's small and medium businesses need urgent help to survive the economic slowdown, and many are at risk of shutting down by the end of June, the head of the central bank said.

* Namibia, which has so far recorded no coronavirus deaths, said it would within days further ease restrictions on social and economic activities.

* A bid round for nine oilfield licenses in Angola could be delayed by the coronavirus outbreak, the national petroleum regulator said.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* A gauge of global equity markets climbed on Thursday on optimism for a speedy economic recovery and a massive stimulus plan in Europe helped lift regional stocks and the euro.

* This year will be the worst for many world stock markets in nearly a decade at least.

* International tourism is set to fall by 70 per cent this year, marking the sector's biggest slump since records began in the 1950s, United Nations World Tourism Organisation Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili told newspaper Handelsblatt.

* Britain's economy is unlikely to recover fully in the next two to three years, a Bank of England policymaker warned.

* Germany's economy is likely to shrink by 6.6 per cent this year, the Ifo Institute said.

* The number of people in France looking for jobs surged in April by 22.6 per cent to a record high, Labour Ministry data showed.

* The pandemic has prompted the United Nations to delay until late 2021 a crucial climate summit that had been scheduled for Britain this year.

Australian Associated Press