Summary of Latest Developments.

26 million people have sought US jobless aid in the past five weeks since the coronavirus hit. About one in six American workers have lost their jobs, by far the worst string of layoffs since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The US House of Representatives has passed a nearly $500bn spending package to help businesses and hospitals.

More than 190,000 people have died due to the pandemic, including 50,000 in the US, with 2.7 million infected globally, out of whom almost 750,000 have recovered.

Testing of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine began on healthy volunteers at University of Oxford in Britain, the latest in a cluster of early-stage studies in search of protection against the coronavirus.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says there are "worrying upward trends" in early epidemics in parts of Africa and Central and South America, warning that the "virus will be with us for a long time".

Here are the latest updates:

Indonesia to ban air, sea travel until the end of May - officials.

Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic and international air and sea travel, with some exceptions, starting this week to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus, the transport ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The announcement came as the holy month of Ramadan began in the world's largest Muslim majority country, and the government has already banned citizens' traditional annual exodus from the cities to the provinces during the holiday period..

The ban on sea travel took immediate effect, but the ban on air travel will start on Saturday. The ban will apply across-the-board until May 31.

Thailand reports 15 new cases, no new deaths.

Thailand reported on Friday a total of 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the overall number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,854 cases and 50 deaths.

Of the new cases, nine were linked to previous cases and two had no known links.

Four other new cases were reported from the southern province of Yala where the authorities are aggressively testing the population because of high infection rates there, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a government spokesman. Since the outbreak 2,490 patients have recovered and gone home.

US coronavirus deaths top 50,000.

US coronavirus deaths hit another grim milestone on Friday topping 50,000, as the number of lives lost in April rises by an average of 2,000 a day, according to the Worldometers website, which tracks the pandemic.

The Johns Hopkins website also showed the death toll inching closer to 50,000.

The total number of US cases hit 868,000 with many states yet to report early on Friday.

Deadly protest in Venezuela amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A man has been shot dead in southern Venezuela during a protest against rising food prices, the military said amid the coronavirus crisis.

Protesters in Venezuela's provincial cities took to the streets for a second day on Thursday. Dozens of people demonstrated in Upata, a town of about 100,000 in the southern state of Bolivar, protesting against "rising prices for food and essentials," according to a report by the Venezuelan army seen by the AFP news agency. 

As of Thursday, Venezuela reported an estimated 311 infections with at least 10 fatalities.

Coronavirus tally rises to 91 on Italian cruise ship in Japan.

As many as 91 crew of an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's southwestern port of Nagasaki are infected with coronavirus, officials said on Friday, as questions persist over how and when they will return to their home countries.

Authorities are racing to complete tests on about 290 of the 623 crew after one of them was found infected this week, Reuters news agency reported.

Those who have tested negative will be repatriated, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday, according to Kyodo news agency, a decision welcomed by officials in Nagasaki prefecture.

Source: News Agencies.