The United States is the worst-hit country with 79,239 deaths. Britain follows with 31,930, then Italy with 30,560 deaths, Spain with 26,478 , France with 26,313, Brazil 10,739 and Germany 7549.
Officials say the number of confirmed infections has risen by another 10,817 to reach a total of 198,676, putting Russia behind only the US, Spain, Italy and Britain in total cases.
Russia says the increase is due in part to a huge testing campaign, while the country´s reported mortality rate is much lower than in many countries, with 1,827 dead.
Air France will start checking passengers´ temperatures when France´s lockdown measures are eased on Monday.
The airline says it could bar anyone from boarding its flights if a temperature is deemed too high.
Google and Facebook have told most employees to keep working from home for the rest of the year, even if offices reopen over the summer.
The US vice president´s spokeswoman became the second White House staffer this week to test positive for the coronavirus, officials said, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemoration with veterans in their 90s.
News that staffer Katie Miller had fallen ill boosted fears that the White House is at risk of becoming a viral hot spot just when Trump is leading efforts to wind down nationwide quarantine measures that have devastated the world´s biggest economy.
Miller is spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, giving her frequent access to high-level meetings. She is also married to top Trump aide Stephen Miller, the speech writer behind the administration´s hardline immigration measures.
A senior administration official initially said only that a member of Pence´s staff had been tested and found to have the coronavirus.
Trump, speaking later at an event with Republican lawmakers, identified the person as "Katie," saying she works with Pence as a "press person." This confirmed multiple US media reports that Katie Miller was the person in question.
On Friday, Miller thanked people for their well wishes, and in a tweet said: "I´m doing well and look forward to getting back to work for the American people."
As recently as Thursday, Miller was seen mingling with officials at an outdoor prayer ceremony hosted by Trump and attended by dozens of people, including the wives of Trump and Pence and many senior staff.
Miller´s positive test disrupted a trip by Pence to Des Moines, Iowa, with six people who may have had contact with her made to get off the airplane.
"Out of abundance of caution we went back and looked into all the person´s contacts most recently," said the senior administration official, who asked not to be named.
On Thursday, a Trump spokesman said the president´s valet, a member of the military who is in close contact with the president, had tested positive.
Trump and Pence were tested and confirmed to be negative. Both are tested daily.
The latest scare came as Trump is pressing for a quicker reopening of the US economy, which has been hammered by the fallout from mass lockdowns and social distancing.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said there was no risk of a White House outbreak or threat to Trump.
"I can just tell you that we´ve taken every single precaution to protect the president," she told a press briefing. "We clean the facility, we social distance, we keep people six feet away from each other."
Trump has drawn criticism for refusing to follow his own health experts´ advice on wearing a mask in public. Although wearing a face covering is voluntary, it is recommended by many state authorities and federal doctors.
Few of Trump´s staff are ever seen wearing masks. Trump´s latest public outing was to a ceremony early Friday marking the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
The president, who at 73 is well within the higher-risk group for COVID-19, met eight American veterans ranging in age from 96 to 100. Neither he nor the veterans wore masks, although he kept a few steps from them.
"I was very far away from (the veterans)," Trump told journalists. "Plus the wind was blowing so hard in such a direction that if the plague ever reached them, I´d be very surprised."
According to McEnany, the veterans "made the choice to come here because they´ve chosen to put their nation first. They wanted to be with their commander in chief on this momentous day. It was their choice to come here."
Meanwhile, there has been a push for the EU states to guarantee vouchers for travel cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic and start lifting internal border restrictions in a bid to salvage some of the summer tourism season, the bloc’s executive will say next week.
Tourism, that normally contributes almost a tenth of the European Union’s economic output, is among the sectors hardest hit by the global outbreak that has grounded nearly all travel.
Germany and other member states have urged a suspension of EU rules that force cash-drained airlines and the hospitality industry to offer full refunds for cancelled flights and trips instead of vouchers for future travel.
In response, the European Commission will tell member states to guarantee vouchers to make them more attractive to customers, according to a strategy document ahead of official publication due on Wednesday.
“To provide incentives for passengers and travellers to accept vouchers instead of reimbursement, vouchers should be protected against insolvency of the issuer and remain refundable by the end of their validity if not redeemed,” the draft document said.
“Insolvency protection needs to be assured at the national level and secured vouchers need to be accessible to all passengers and travellers,” it added.
The EU executive will also tell the bloc’s 27 member countries to gradually lift internal border restrictions and restart some travel to help the ailing tourism sector.
Tourism normally brings some 150 billion euros every season from June through August with some 360 million international arrivals, according to the Commission.
But Europe’s external borders are now bound to be shut for any non-essential travel until at least mid-June, an emergency measure to limit the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile the British government told airlines it will introduce a 14-day quarantine period for most people arriving from abroad to try to avoid a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic, an association representing the airlines said on Saturday.
Airlines UK, which represents British Airways (ICAG.L), Easyjet (EZJ.L) and other British airlines, said the move required “a credible exit plan” and should be reviewed weekly. Airport operators said it could have a “devastating” impact on the aviation industry and the broader economy.
The quarantine plan was first reported by The Times newspaper, which said Prime Minister Boris Johnson would today (Sunday) announce that passengers arriving at airports and ports, including Britons returning from abroad, will have to self-isolate for a fortnight.
Under measures that are likely to come into force in early June, travellers will have to provide the address at which they will self-isolate on arrival, The Times said.
“These measures will help protect the British public and reduce the transmission of the virus as we move into the next phase of our response,” The Times quoted a government sources as saying.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s capital closed down more than 2,100 bars and other nightspots Saturday because of a new cluster of coronavirus infections, Germany scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses, and Italian authorities worried that people were getting too friendly at cocktail hour during the country’s first weekend of eased restrictions.
The new outbreaks — and the fears of a second wave of contagion — underscored the dangers authorities face as they try to reopen their economies.
Around the world, the US and other hard-hit countries are wrestling with how to ease curbs on business and public activity without causing the virus to come surging back.
Elsewhere, Belarus, which has not locked down despite increasing case numbers, saw tens of thousands of people turn out to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945. That was in contrast to Russia, which skipped the usual grand parade in Red Square.
Germany and South Korea have both carried out extensive testing and contact tracing and have been hailed for avoiding the mass deaths that have overwhelmed other countries. But even there, authorities have struggled with finding the balance between saving lives and saving jobs.
In South Korea, where a decline in new cases had prompted the government to loosen up, Seoul shut down thousands of nightclubs, hostess bars and discos after dozens of infections were linked to clubgoers who went out last weekend as the country relaxed its social-distancing guidelines.
Many of the infections were linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three nightclubs before testing positive. Mayor Park Won-soon said health workers were trying to contact some 1,940 people who had been at the three clubs and other places nearby.
The mayor said gains made against the virus are now threatened “because of a few careless people.”
Health officials in Germany faced outbreaks at three slaughterhouses in what was seen as a test of the government’s strategy for dealing with any resurgence of the virus as the restrictions are eased. At one slaughterhouse, in Coesfeld, 180 workers tested positive for the virus.
Germany’s NGG union, which represents food industry workers, said the outbreaks were the result of “a sick system.” Freddy Adjan, a senior union official, said the meat industry has for years been relying on “dubious subcontractors” that exploit workers.
US authorities are likewise watching for a second wave, more than two weeks after states began gradually reopening, with Georgia largely leading the way.
Meanwhile, governments came under fresh scrutiny over their handling of the crisis.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Europe must acknowledge that it “wasn’t well-prepared” for the outbreak. In the US, internal government emails show that a decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the epidemic came from the highest levels of the White House.
