Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing - April 9, 2020

ANKARA (AA) - Here is Anadolu Agency’s rundown of the latest developments on the novel coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread rapidly worldwide. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally is now nearly 1.5 million, while over 88,500 people have died and more than 329,800 have made recoveries.

Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 87 more deaths and 4,117 new cases, bringing the death toll to 812 and the total number of cases to 38,226.

The number of Turkish expats who have died due to novel coronavirus rose to 222.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the country's 'healthcare army' of nearly 500,000 medical staff and 360,000 support personnel fighting the novel coronavirus.

The country began distributing face masks and cologne, a traditional ethanol-based scented disinfectant, for people in the risk groups, including 65-year-plus and people suffering from chronic illnesses.

Turkey delivered medical supplies such as masks, overalls, and test kits to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo via military aircraft.

Kosovo's president, the North Macedonian foreign minister, and the U.K. foreign secretary praised Turkey's help to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

Italy, one of the world's worst-hit countries, reported 542 new deaths due to COVID-19, raising the total death toll there to 17,669. The daily rise in the number of victims was the lowest in about three weeks.

As for other European heavyweights, the death toll in Spain increased to 14,555, in France to 10,869, and in Germany to 2,017.

In the U.K., where the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care earlier this week after catching the coronavirus, the death toll from the virus hits 7,097. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Johnson's condition was improving although he was still in the intensive care unit.

In Serbia, the son of President Aleksandar Vucic contracted the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases in the country exceeds 2,600 and the death toll stands at 65.

Health authorities in several Arab and African countries confirmed new cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.

Also in Iran, the number of deaths from COVID-19 reached 4,003.

The death toll in the U.S. surpassed the 13,000 mark and the number of confirmed cases hit 402,923 as the country struggles to curb the outbreak.

- Terrorism

At least five villagers were martyred in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday by the terrorist YPG/PKK. Roadside explosives planted by the terror group hit a vehicle carrying forest workers in rural areas of Diyarbakir province.

The head of the EU delegation to Turkey and Turkey's parliament speaker condemned the deadly terror attack.

Ankara's anti-terror operations are continuing in the region without pause despite the coronavirus outbreak.

The country neutralized a wanted PKK terrorist in northern Iraq. Fadil Ekinci -- codenamed Zinar -- was a so-called senior PKK figure in the Zap region of Iraq.

Turkey also neutralized two PKK terrorists in northern Iraq's Haftanin region and a total of eight YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria.

Turkish and Russian forces stationed in Syria conducted their third joint patrol in line with the Moscow agreement in early March.