TOP HEADLINES

- IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned the global economy has clearly "entered a recession" and 80 nations have already appealed to the Fund for emergency bailouts.  

- Authorities in Ukrainian city Odessa have been forced to deny online rumors that "antiseptics," such as whiskey, would be run through the city's water supply to fight COVID-19. 

- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tweeted to confirm he has tested positive for the virus.

- France confirms 365 people were killed by the virus on Thursday including the country's youngest victim, a 16-year-old girl from Paris. 

- Edouard Phillippe, prime minister of France, has announced the country will extend its period of confinement by two weeks, to 15 April.

- No EU-wide economic response to the pandemic is agreed at a video conference call between leaders.

- The Russian government has ordered all cafes and restaurants to close for a week from Saturday.

- Spain's death toll has continued to rise, with a further 769 deaths in 24 hours. 

- Spanish tennis star Rafa Nadal and compatriot Pau Gasol, one of the leading European basketball players, have started a fundraising campaign which they hope will raise $12 million. 

- Danish civil servants in “non-essential roles” have been asked to take five days of their annual leave during their semi-quarantine.

- The UK has announced it will use firefighters to deliver food and transport bodies of victims who die from the virus. 

- Sweden, which had been using a softer approach to social distancing compared to other countries in Europe, has reduced the size of gatherings allowed to 50 from 500. 

ACROSS EUROPE

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgium's lockdown has come in phases. First, all restaurants, cafes and clubs were forced to close on 14 March. Then, a few days later, all non-essential shops were ordered shut and people required to stay indoors. There are exceptions for work and exercise.

Belgian police have been issuing fines to anyone breaking the rules and the country's borders have been closed to all non-essential travel.

The government is expected to extend the lockdown past the 5 April deadline. It's also expected to impose stricter restrictions as the number of cases spikes in Belgium. 

To blunt the economic carnage, the government announced a fiscal package worth up to $11 billion and $55 billion of guarantees for new bank loans to companies and the self-employed. Certain workers are also entitled to unemployment benefits amounting to 70 percent of their wage.

Like most places in Europe, Belgium has suffered a shortage of personal protective equipment, although it recently procured six million masks. It's also cancelled all non-emergency services at hospitals to give healthcare workers more space to treat coronavirus patients. 

Julia Lyubova in Geneva 

Switzerland has asked state-controlled telecoms provider Swisscom for mobile phone data to judge whether people were complying with a requirement not to congregate in groups of more than five people. 

After analyzing the data, the Swiss government has decided to hold off putting in place more stringent restrictions. However, the possibility of a complete curfew remains on the table. 

Government officials say the Swisscom data are 24 hours old and provide a retrospective picture of people's movements. 

Daniel Koch, head of infectious diseases at the federal health agency, said the information "had nothing to do with current data or surveillance."

Meanwhile, Swiss companies rushed to their banks to tap into the $20.58 billion emergency fund of state-backed interest-free loans. Credit Suisse said it received 2,700 loan applications and by midday on Thursday paid out $520 million in a fast-track procedure. UBS said it had received 3,000 applications.

Rahul Pathak in Madrid

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has announced a $219 billion aid package to protect jobs and reduce the economic impact of the pandemic.  

When it comes to restrictions, the national government says people should stay at home unless they are traveling to and from work or shopping for food or medicine. However, the leader of Catalonia has called for a tightening of those measures after the number of COVID-19 deaths in the region spiked from 12 to more than 670 in 10 days.

Spain has also closed its borders with France and Portugal, allowing only Spanish residents to come back into the country. Spain has not yet closed air traffic but the government hasn't ruled this out as a step to be taken in the future.  

With the healthcare system nearly at breaking point, the authorities say they've acquired more medical equipment including 700 ventilators and 1.3 million protective masks.

Ira Spitzer in Berlin

According to multiple German media outlets, a new strategy paper from the country's interior ministry calls for Germany to follow South Korea's example and increase coronavirus testing capacity as quickly as possible. The paper calls for a capability of about 200,000 tests a day, an increase of around three times the country's current capacity.

Germany's interior minister, Heiko Maas, says the country's hospitals will receive at least 47 coronavirus patients from Italy, where many hospitals are overwhelmed. Earlier this week, eight Italian patients in critical condition were flown into the Leipzig airport for treatment in nearby hospitals.

Speaking from home quarantine, Germany chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she wasn't yet ready to discuss loosening the country's restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, which include limiting public gatherings to no more than two people. 

According to a poll by the research institute YouGov, 54 percent of Germans viewed the government's handling of the crisis positively, while 38 percent viewed it negatively.

Germany has had 47,728 confirmed coronavirus cases and 281 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University on Friday.

Isobel Ewing in Budapest

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, on Friday announced a curfew in the country that will extend from 29 March until 11 April.

People will only be permitted to leave their homes to go to work or to run essential errands and grocery shops and pharmacies will be open only to those older than 65 between 09:00 and 12:00. During that time, others will not be permitted to enter the shop. 

On his weekly public radio show, Orban said people are allowed to go outside, including going for a walk, but they must maintain a distance of two meters from others.

Sixty tons of protective equipment arrived in Hungary from China this week including ventilators, masks and gloves – and more is coming.

In addition, Hungary received eight tons of textiles from Turkey that will be used to make masks, and on Friday received 150,000 masks from Uzbekistan.

Protecting the economy was now secondary to containing the spread of COVID-19, Orban promised, and said that by the second week of April his government would reveal an economic protection action plan.

Now, however, "we must first and foremost acknowledge our doctors, nurses, ambulances, law enforcement agencies, because they work in the front line," he said.

Jemima Walker in London 

The country's prime minister, Boris Johnson, and healthy secretary, Matt Hancock, both took to Twitter to confirm they have tested positive for COVID-19. 

This came after people across the UK, including the PM and members of the royal family, took part in a national round of applause for the National Health Service. It comes after more than 500,000 people volunteered to work for the NHS – to help with tasks such as making phone calls or delivering food and medicine to vulnerable people. 

The NHS is free at the point of use but has suffered funding cuts in recent years, which have left medics worried that some hospitals might not be resilient enough to cope with the pandemic.

The UK finance minister Rishi Sunak also delivered good news for the country's freelancers and self-employed workers, after he revealed that up to 80 percent of salaries will be paid by the government, up to $3,000 per month, starting from June. 

However, this will only be available to self-employed workers who completed a 2019 tax return, so it remains unclear how newly self-employed or freelance workers will be assisted.

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CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded. Here you can read the essential information about the crisis.