Coronavirus cases in India rose to 8,447 on Sunday, with 909 infections and 34 deaths reported in the last 24 hours according to Ministry of Health. The toll now stands at 274, while 764 people have recovered. In the daily briefing of the Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, said 1,86,906 samples have been tested so far, of which 4.3 per cent were positive. “In last five days, on average 15,747 samples were tested per day and 584 of those were found positive per day,” he said. India is going to extend its lockdown for two more weeks as six states, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana,  already announced the extension till April 30 in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

On the occasion of Easter Sunday, Pope Francis delivered the sermon virtually as millions of people livestreamed the Sunday mass. The pope expressed particular concern for the future of Europe, saying he hoped that rivalries from before the second world war “do not regain force” as a result of the pandemic.

According to Reuters, he added,“The European Union is presently facing an epochal challenge, on which will depend not only its future but that of the whole world … This is not a time for division.”

The pope repeated a call for a ceasefire “in all corners of the world”, condemned arms manufacturing and said the pandemic should spur leaders to finally end long-running wars such as that in Syria. He also appealed for help for migrants and others suffering from existing humanitarian conflicts.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he owes his life to the doctors and nurses at St Thomas’ hospital in London, where he was being treated for coronavirus. He was admitted on Sunday and was discharged today. Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care, said he “can’t thank them enough”, reports The Guardian.

With over 20,000 deaths, the United States has now overtaken Italy with the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world. For the first time in history, all 50 US states have come under disaster declarations. Wyoming became the 50th state, following approval by President Donald Trump on Saturday. The Guardian reports, the US Virgin islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico are also under the declarations, which enable federal funds to be used by state and local governments.

In Russia, the Kremlin said that the rise of coronavirus patients was beginning to put a strain on Moscow’s hospitals. The city and other regions have been in lockdown for almost two weeks, but the hospitals in the capital are still stretched. “The situation in both Moscow and St Petersburg, but mostly in Moscow, is quite tense because the number of sick people is growing,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, reported The Guardian.