Confirmed COVID-19 cases have exceeded 7.7 million globally, with over 429,000 fatalities and more than 3.6 million recoveries, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Beijing on Saturday recorded a total of 36 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one new asymptomatic patient; China's Hubei Province, once hit hard by COVID-19, lowered its emergency response from level II to III starting Saturday.

The U.S. has recorded over 2 million confirmed cases as of Friday, with a death toll of over 115,000..

UK GDP shrank by a record 20.4 percent in April from March as the country spent the month under a coronavirus lockdown.

Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, has tested positive for coronavirus, but President Volodymyr Zelensky and their two children have tested negative.

Italy reported 78 new COVID-19-related deaths on Saturday, taking its total fatalities to 34,301.

The figure was announced by the Civil Protection Agency, which noted that the country registered 346 new infections.

Italy is one of the world's worst affected countries by the COVID-19 pandemic. The country's death toll is the fourth highest after those of the U.S., U.K. and Brazil.

Italy has now recorded 236,651 infections, the seventh biggest tally after the U.S., Brazil, Russia, India, U.K. and Spain.

According to Reuters, the northern region of Lombardy, where the outbreak was first identified, remains by far the worst affected of Italy's 20 regions, accounting for 210 of the 346 new cases reported on Saturday.

People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 27,485 from 28,997 the day before.

There were 220 people in intensive care on Saturday, down from 227 on Friday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 174,865 were declared recovered against 173,085 a day earlier.

Fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections have emerged in Beijing after dozens of residents tested positive for coronavirus.

The new confirmed patient reported on Wednesday was a locally transmitted case after Beijing had zero COVID-19 case for 56 consecutive days, local authorities said at a press briefing on Thursday.

France is to lift its border restrictions for all European travellers on 15 June, according to its Interior and Foreign ministries. The restriction lift applies to all borders including air, land or sea. Russia's daily cases rose by 8,706 in the past 24 hours bringing the total number of infection to 520,129. Deaths also rose by 114 to 6,829.

Source: CGTN