THE global Covid-19 death toll has now passed 100,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
The US-based institution reports that Italy remains the worst-affected country, with 18,849 deaths so far. The US is next with 17,925 deaths. Spain is third, with 15,970 deaths.
The new figures were released 101 days after Chinese authorities first alerted the World Health Organisation about a new coronavirus in Wuhan.
The true number of lives lost is believed be much higher because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and cover-ups by some governments. The number confirmed to be infected was more than 1.6 million.
In the US, New York state reported 777 new deaths, down slightly from the day before, for an overall toll of more than 7800.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: What it's like to live in lockdown in New York City
"I understand intellectually why it's happening," said governor Andrew Cuomo. "It doesn't make it any easier to accept."
But state officials said the number of people in intensive care dropped for the first time since mid-March and hospitalisations are slowing: 290 new patients in a single day, compared with daily increases of more than 1,000 last week.
Cuomo said if the trend holds, New York might not need the overflow field hospitals that officials have been scrambling to construct.
"There is a light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr Jolion McGreevy, medical director of Mount Sinai Hospital's emergency department. "It's getting better, but it's not like it's going to just drop off overnight. I think it's going to continue to slowly decline over the next weeks and months."
With the pandemic slamming economies, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned that the global economy is headed for the worst recession since the Depression.
In Europe, the 19 countries that use the euro currency overcame weeks of bitter divisions to agree on spending $550 billion to cushion the recession caused by the virus. Mario Centeno, who heads the eurozone finance ministers' group, called the package "totally unprecedented".
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