Meanwhile, the global coronavirus deaths on Friday crossed the 1.4 lakh mark with the United States registering the highest death toll

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread like wildfire across the globe and nations worldwide struggle to deal with it, India has now received an amount of around $5.9 million in health assistance as aid from the United States to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus in the country.

The US State Department in a statement said that the financial aid will be used in providing care for the COVID-19 affected, spreading useful health information to the public, surveillance and case finding. It could also be used in emergency preparedness and response to the global pandemic.

"This builds on a foundation of nearly $2.8 billion in total assistance, which includes more than $1.4 billion in health assistance, the United States has provided to India over the last 20 years," it said in an update of the US efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Department and the US Agency for International Development have now committed nearly $508 million in emergency health, humanitarian, and economic assistance, worldwide.

America has provided COVID-19 assistance to Afghanistan ($18 million), Bangladesh ($9.6 million), Bhutan ($500,000), Nepal ($1.8 million), Pakistan ($9.4 million) and Sri Lanka ($1.3 million). 

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus deaths on Friday crossed the 1.4 lakh mark with the United States registering the highest death toll of over 34,000. In the US, New York state is world-affected with 16,106 deaths. Out of total COVID-19 cases in the US, 54,703 have recovered from the disease. 

As of 8 AM Friday (IST), 144,047 deaths have been recorded worldwide with 2,157,108 global cases of COVID-19, John Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker showed.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India climbed to 12,759 on Thursday with the death toll reaching 420.

The Health Ministry has informed that 325 districts in India have no cases of COVID19. It also said that an action plan has been prepared to strengthen ongoing surveillance for COVID-19 clusters.

The Indian Council of Medical Research informed that 2,90,401 people have been tested to date, out of which 30,043 (26,331 tests done at ICMR's 176 labs & 3,712 tests at 78 private labs) were tested yesterday.

The organisation also informed that the rapid antibody test is not conducted for early diagnosis, it is used for surveillance purposes.