Tens of thousands of people in Wuhan, the origin point and epicentre for the coronavirus pandemic, began travelling out of the sprawling city on Wednesday as China lifted its 73-day lockdown, even as the number of fresh COVID-19 cases crossed 1,000 in the country and two new deaths heightened concerns of a rebound in infections.

The number of deaths in the US due to the coronavirus on Tuesday crossed 12,700, with a record 1,900 fatalities in a single day, as President Donald Trump sought to assure a grieving nation that new data projections reveal fewer deaths than originally thought.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a month-long state of emergency in Tokyo and six other parts of the country over a spike in coronavirus cases.

Scores of Indian Americans have tested positive with the novel coronavirus and several of them have died, according to multiple news reports from community organisations and diaspora leaders from across the US, currently the global epicentre of the deadly disease.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in hospital due to persistent coronavirus symptoms, has been shifted to the intensive care unit after his coronavirus symptoms "worsened", Downing Street has said.

Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus after developing a dry cough, in what is believed to be the first known case of an animal infected with COVID-19 in the US, raising new questions about human-to-animal transmission of the deadly virus.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests after he showed "persistent symptoms of coronavirus" even 10 days after testing positive for the disease.