Iran Press/Europe: Italy reported 6,153 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, pushing the global total over half a million, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Italy also announced 662 more deaths, bringing the country's death toll to 8,165 - the highest in the world.
Spain extended its state of emergency for two more weeks to allow the government to extend stringent lockdown measures in a desperate attempt to contain the coronavirus.
Spain reported 655 new deaths in one day on Thursday bringing the death toll to 4,089. There are over 56,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the country.
Spain has surpassed China, where the pandemic began, in the overall number of COVID-19 deaths. Spain and Italy have the highest fatality rates in the global pandemic.
Also, the UK announced on Thursday 115 new deaths, taking its total to 578.
France announced a total of 25,233 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as its death toll reached 1,331, with 231 new deaths in one day.
South Africa, which is on the eve of a three-week lockdown, announced on Thursday its coronavirus cases are nearing 1,000, the most cases in Africa.
India on Tuesday started implementing the world's biggest lockdown of 1.3 billion people, following the example of a number of countries, especially in Europe, which remains the global coronavirus hotspot.
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