Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

While several countries further relax restrictions designed to contain the coronavirus, with Italy and England due to restart their top-flight soccer leagues next month, Russia, Brazil and Mexico kept struggling with rising numbers of cases and deaths.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* More than 5.83 million people have been reported infected with the novel coronavirus globally and 359,859 have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1153 GMT on Friday.

EUROPE

* The European health regulator said its panel would conduct a speedy review of the potential COVID-19 drug, remdesivir.

* Russia reported 232 deaths from the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, a record one-day amount that pushed the nationwide death toll to 4,374.

* France will allow restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen from June 2, though with more restrictions in Paris than elsewhere.

* Italy's top-flight Serie A soccer league has been given the go-ahead to restart on June 20 following the novel coronavirus stoppage, Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Thursday.

* England's Premier League season will restart on June 17 provided all safety requirements have been put in place, the league said on Thursday after meeting with all 20 clubs.

AMERICAS

* U.S. hospitals said they have pulled way back on the use of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose significant risks.

* New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday outlined the first steps for reopening the United States' most populous city, envisioning up to 400,000 people heading back to their workplaces, an easing of the lockdown that began in March.

* Brazil reported a daily record 26,417 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry, bringing its total tally to 438,238, second only to the United States in confirmed cases.

* Mexican president said on Thursday he would restart his tours of Mexico, gambling on his ability to control the narrative that the country is bouncing back from the coronavirus outbreak even as death tolls and infections hit record highs.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Curbs in Japan's capital of Tokyo are to be eased further from Monday, Governor Yuriko Koike said, citing the recommendation of an advisory panel.

* Drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to start clinical trials of a pancreatitis drug in COVID-19 patients.

* China reported no new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland as of the end of May 28, down from two a day earlier, the country's health authority said on Friday.

* South Korean health authorities said they would request imports of Gilead Sciences Inc's anti-viral drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19, as new outbreaks of the disease flare as social distancing restrictions are eased.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Namibia, which has so far recorded no coronavirus deaths, said on Thursday it would within days further ease restrictions on social and economic activities.

* Cases of community transmission of the coronavirus are growing in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, and a new strategy for testing is needed to prevent this, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Global stock markets fell and safe havens such as bonds and the Japanese yen gained, as investors awaited Washington's response to China tightening control over the city of Hong Kong.

* Lending to euro zone companies continued to surge in April as firms scrambled for emergency liquidity amid the lockdown, data from the European Central Bank showed.

* Italy's economy shrank 5.3% in the first quarter from the previous three months, national statistics bureau ISTAT said, the steepest drop in gross domestic product since the current series began in 1995.

* Switzerland is in a sharp recession, the KOF Economic Institute said, plunging KOF's forward-looking economic barometer to its lowest-ever level.

* The number of overnight stays by tourists in Portugal dropped 98.3% to nearly 71,000 last month from the previous year, showing the sector's collapse.

* Japan's factory output slid faster-than-expected and retail sales tumbled the most in more than two decades in April, as the pandemic wrecked both foreign and domestic demand for the country's autos and other manufactured goods.

* Sweden's economy weathered the effects of the coronavirus outbreak in the first quarter, growing 0.1% from the previous three-month period, the Statistics Office said.

* Australia's New South Wales, the country's biggest state in economic terms, said the pandemic could cost it as much A$20 billion ($13.3 billion) in lost revenues over the next four years.

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