Latest on coronavirus outbreak around the globe: WHO says cases outside China hit over 72,000

Confirmed cases of coronavirus outside China rose by 10,955 to 72,469, death toll rose by 333 to 2,531, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest daily situation report.

As of 10 a.m. CET (0900 GMT) on Sunday, the total number of infections around the world is 153,517 with 5,735 deaths recorded.

In the past 12 hours:

U.S.: Federal Reserve slashed rates back to near zero, and said would buy at least 700 billion U.S. dollars in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in coming weeks.

Public schools in NYC and South Carolina will be closed from Monday after over 3,200 cases and 65 deaths were identified in the country.

Italy: Death toll jumped by 368 to 1,809. Total number of positive cases reached 24,747 on Sunday, a jump of 3,590.

Germany: Number of infections rose to 4,838 as of Sunday, among which, 12 were fatal. It will close borders with France, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Luxembourg from Monday morning.

France: 5,423 confirmed cases and 127 deaths were recorded so far.

Lebanon: Two-week lockdown was declared as airport, borders and ports to be closed starting Sunday until March 29. There're 100 cases and three deaths reported in the country so far.

South Africa: a "national state of disaster" was announced to cope with the internal transmission of the virus with international travel to hardest-hit countries been prohibited starting March 18.