China on Tuesday announced that it will lift the three-month lockdown on more than 50 million people in the central Hubei province, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, on Wednesday as the COVID-19 began to abate.

India, which led the world in eradicating two silent killers -- smallpox and polio -- in the past, has a tremendous capacity in eradicating the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has now claimed nearly 15,000 lives globally, according to a top WHO official.

Deaths from the coronavirus pandemic have topped 15,000 across the globe, according to an AFP tally on Monday from official figures.

 The US has seen a significant spike in coronavirus cases with the total confirmed infections jumping to nearly 34,000 while over 400 fatalities were recorded, even as one in every three Americans has been told to stay home.

China has reported no new domestic cases of the novel coronavirus but confirmed 39 imported infections, taking the death toll to 3,270 as the country ramped up measures to strictly quarantine people coming from abroad to prevent a recurrence of the COVID-19 outbreak, health officials said on Monday.

A strong earthquake shook Croatia and its capital on Sunday, causing panic, the evacuation of hospitals and widespread damage including to the city's iconic cathedral all amid a partial coronavirus lockdown.

Italy on Saturday reported 793 new coronavirus deaths, a one-day record that saw its toll shoot up to 4,825 -- 38.3 per cent of the world's total.

Colombo: The coronavirus scare triggered a riot in a Sri Lankan jail on Saturday, leading to a gunfight which left one inmate killed and five others injured, officials said.