COVID-Informer: In just five days COVID-19 deaths have grown by 20,000 to 50,000

That's the equivalent of wiping the entire population of Griffith in the NSW Riverina from the map - in five days.

John Hopkins University has been tracking the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic since it was first detected in China.

The next depressingly large number you can expect to overwhelm you soon is the official confirmed case count. It ticked over one million about 6.30am. Of course, there's no doubt that number has been long surpassed.

Take the Philippines - in an economically-challenged country with a population of 105 million, there have been 2311 confirmed cases and 96 deaths. And all but three in the past three weeks. Uh-huh.

Overnight President Rodrigo Duterte warned his people that if they broke lockdown they could be shot.

"My orders to the police and military ... if there is trouble and there's an occasion that they fight back and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead."

"Is that understood? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you."

No mixed messaging there.

In South Africa, where police fired rubber bullets into a queue of shoppers, they're going the opposite direction.

There was a partial easing of some restrictions overnight. The minibuses that move millions can now run 70 per cent full if drivers and passengers all wear masks. Informal food traders are also allowed to go about their business again.

From a global perspective there has been unexpected co-operation.

Russia's sent medical equipment and masks to the United States; Cuba's supplied doctors to France and Turkey dispatched protective gear and disinfectant to Italy and Spain.

Ukraine has taken another line - it tweeted Elon Musk.

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