The latest: Coronavirus watch, April 8 -- Global death toll of COVID-19 exceeds 70,000: WHO

Pedestrians walk on a street in Brussels, Belgium, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

- Global death toll of COVID-19 exceeds 70,000: WHO

- Trump says African Americans have higher rates of COVID-19 infection in U.S.

- COVID-19 deaths surpass 10,000 in France

- Wuhan lifts outbound travel restrictions, ending months-long lockdown

BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions.

The following are the updates on the contagious disease.

GENEVA -- A total of 72,776 people had died of COVID-19 globally as the number of infections surged to 1,282,931 on Tuesday, according to the latest figures showed by the situation dashboard of the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the WHO dashboard, updated at 10:00 CET Tuesday, Europe has a total of 686,338 COVID-19 cases, and there are 384,242 reported confirmed cases in Americas.

A medical worker transfers the body of a victim who died of COVID-19 at a hospital in New York, the United States, April 6, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

NEW YORK -- The U.S. state of New York lost 731 lives to COVID-19 from Monday to Tuesday, bringing the state's death toll to 5,489 while marking the deadliest 24 hours yet since the pandemic took hold here, said Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday.

"Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers and they're in our thoughts and prayers," said Cuomo at his daily briefing on coronavirus.

People wearing face masks wait in line outside a grocery store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday evidence shows African Americans having higher rates of COVID-19 infection in the United States.

Trump said his administration is actively engaging on the problem of increased impacts on the African American community, and doing everything to address this challenge.

A woman wears a face mask amid covid-19 outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 4, 2020. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua)

BRASILIA -- Brazil on Tuesday reported the total number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 13,717, with 667 deaths, for a mortality rate of 4.9 percent.

According to the Health Ministry, 1,661 new cases of infection have been reported in the country in the past 24 hours, and 114 patients died.

Cars passing an expressway toll station in western Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

WUHAN -- As cars queued up at expressway toll gates and passengers prepared to board trains to leave Wuhan, the megacity in central China started lifting outbound travel restrictions from Wednesday after almost 11 weeks of lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19.

At Fuhe toll gate in northern Wuhan, cars honked horns and rushed out after barricades were removed at midnight.

Medical personnel work in the ICU of Istituto Clinico Casalpalocco, in Rome, Italy, March 25, 2020. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)

BRUSSELS -- A team of European doctors and nurses from Romania and Norway is being dispatched to Milan and Bergamo to help Italian medical staff battle the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union (EU) said Tuesday in a statement.

According to the statement, the medical team is deployed through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. Austria has also offered over 3,000 liters of disinfectant to Italy via the Mechanism.

A pedestrian wearing a mask walks on a street in Cairo, Egypt, April 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)

CAIRO -- The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed nearly 4,000 lives out of the over 60,000 infected cases in Iran, while more states in the Middle East started to require wearing face masks to curb the spread of the pandemic.

The death toll of the virus in Iran rose by 133 to 3,872 on Tuesday, Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education said, adding the confirmed cases went up by 2,089 to 62,589. Enditem

A woman wearing a protective mask is seen in Paris, France, on April 7, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)

BRUSSELS -- The COVID-19 death toll in Europe continued to climb as the number in France jumped by over 1,400 on Tuesday to pass the 10,000 mark.

With 10,328 deaths, France became the third country in Europe to report over 10,000 deaths after Italy and Spain.