New Delhi: The worldwide tally of coronavirus COVID-19 deaths on Monday (March 30) night at 11:40 pm reached 36,211 with 7,55,591 positive cases, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest data. Italy and US have been the worst-hit nations with the former witnessing the most deaths (11,591) and the latter having the most number of confirmed cases of 1,48,089.
In UK, Prince Charles appeared recovering and moved out of self-isolation, but Israeli Prime Minister entered quarantine after an aide tested positive for the deadly virus.
The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 812 in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday, reversing two days of declines.
Italy, the world`s hardest hit country which accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities, saw its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on February 21. The number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest amount since March 17, reaching a total of 101,739.
Italians have been under nationwide lockdown for three weeks and officials said the restrictions, which were due to end on Friday, look certain for at least two more weeks.
Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump defended his decision to extend restrictive social distancing guidelines through the end of April, while bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people.
"The worst that could happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back," Trump said during a nearly hour-long call-in interview with "Fox & Friends" as members of his coronavirus task force fanned out across other media outlets to warn the virus' spread was only just beginning.
The comments came a day after Trump made a dramatic course reversal and announced that he would not be moving to ease the guidelines and get the economy back up and running by Easter, as he said last week he hoped to do.
France on Monday reported its highest daily number of deaths from COVID-19 since the coronavirus epidemic began, saying 418 more people had died in hospital to bring the toll to 3,024. There are now 20,946 people hospitalised in France with COVID-19, with 5,056 of them in intensive care, the government said in its daily update.
The French death toll includes only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old people's homes.
France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic and officials have repeatedly warned it will take time for the measures to bear fruit.
Meanwhile, Iran's official coronavirus death toll reached 2,757 on Monday and the number of infections crossed 40,000, as President Hassan Rouhani's political opponents slammed his response to the outbreak. The Islamic republic is one of the countries worst hit by the virus, which originated in China.
Iran has been scrambling to contain COVID-19's spread since it reported its first cases on February 19. After weeks of refraining from imposing lockdown or quarantine measures, Tehran decided Wednesday to ban all intercity travel until at least April 8, but some in the establishment have argued it is too little, too late.
(With Agency Inputs)
