FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

A mental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations said.

More than 4.37 million people have been reported to be infected globally and 296,257 have died, according to a Reuters tally, as of 1127 GMT on Thursday.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser. * For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE * A vaccine to counter the new coronavirus could be approved in about a year in an "optimistic" scenario, an agency that approves medicines for the European Union said.

* Britain is in talks with Swiss drugmaker Roche to buy an accurate COVID-19 antibody test, following the lead of the European Union and the United States. * Russia on Thursday reported 9,974 new confirmed cases, its lowest daily rise in nearly two weeks, bringing its nationwide tally to 252,245.

* A study by the Pasteur Institute said only 4.4% of the French population - or 2.8 million people - have been infected, much higher than the official count but way too low to achieve so-called herd immunity.

AMERICAS

* President Trump said he is mobilizing the U.S. military to distribute a vaccine when one becomes available and will focus first on older Americans. * Accused criminals across the United States have started using the threat of deadly COVID-19 infection as a weapon in attacks on police, retail clerks, and grocers trying to keep the nation fed during the lockdown.

* Over a third of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a large New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, U.S. researchers reported. * Brazil registered a record 11,385 new cases on Wednesday, surpassing France's tally to become the sixth-worst hit country.

* The chief spokesman for Mexico's foreign minister tested positive and an official in the president's office has died of COVID-19. Mexico confirmed 1,862 new cases and 294 additional deaths on Wednesday, slightly lower than the record daily fatalities reported the day before. * Peru's cases rate is peaking and will begin a slow decline, its president said as the country moves into a "final stage" of lockdown.

* Half the prisoners at a Colombian jail near the Amazonian borders of Brazil and Peru have tested positive.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China said it will step up testing to prevent a rebound of the epidemic that has killed more than 4,600 in its mainland territories. * South Korean health authorities said they would revise their practice of publicizing travel routes of coronavirus patients due to fears of a backlash against clubgoers and discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.

* India is aggressively pushing a state-backed contact tracing app, raising fears that it is on its way to Chinese-style methods of high tech social control. * Health groups have asked India to rescind Gilead's patents for COVID-19 drug remdesivir so it can be distributed more fairly to patients worldwide, particularly in poorer nations.

* Japan has begun treating severely ill patients with remdesivir, a health ministry official said, just days after giving it emergency approval. * Vietnam has mounted an all-out effort to save its most critically ill patient, a British pilot. With aggressive testing and a mass, centralized quarantine program, it has reported just 288 cases and no deaths.

* Malaysia will ease a ban on mass prayers in mosques, starting from Friday and ahead of this month's Eid festival.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Armenia extended a state of emergency until June 13, after the number of new daily infections began rising at the end of April. * Burundi has expelled the national head of the World Health Organisation, according to a letter by the country's foreign minister, which gave no reason.

* Sierra Leone is weathering a dramatic crunch in mining revenue as restrictions hurt companies' ability to export gold and diamonds and access essential supplies. * Lesotho recorded its first case on Wednesday, becoming the last country in Africa to be afflicted by the virus.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT * World stock markets fell for a third day running on Thursday after a sobering warning from the World Health Organization that the coronavirus may never go away.

* More global coordination is necessary to fight the twin threat of the coronavirus and climate change, said a report from central bank umbrella group, the Bank for International Settlements. * Iran's oil exports have sunk to a record low as the coronavirus crisis compounds the impact of U.S. sanctions already limiting shipments.

* The Bank of Japan's governor said he saw no need to take interest rates deeper into negative territory now. (Compiled by Sarah Morland; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)