Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.

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European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde hailed Monday a proposed €500 billion Franco-German EU coronavirus recovery plan as a needed show of solidarity at a time when the economy is on its knees.

"The Franco-German proposals are ambitious, targeted and welcome," Lagarde said in an interview with four European daily newspapers.

"It is testimony to the spirit of solidarity and responsibility" evoked by Merkel recently, Lagarde said in remarks to France's Les Echos, Italy's Corriere della Sera, the Handelsblatt for Germany and El Mundo for Spain.

Without it, there would be no prospect of increased financial solidarity and coordination, she added.

Lagarde said Europe had been hit by a shock "unequalled in times of peace", warning that in the worst case, the economy could shrink by 15% in the three months to June alone.

The Franco-German fund will notably be financed by joint EU borrowing, up to now a redline for Germany and its fiscally hard-line allies in the bloc but pressed for by Italy and Spain, some of the worst affected countries.

- AFP

President Vladimir Putin was forced to intervene personally on Monday in the epidemic sweeping Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan, as local officials described the coronavirus situation as a "catastrophe".

For several days now, there have rumours of mounting fatalities and overwhelmed hospitals in the mountainous majority-Muslim region and local medical staff have taken to social media to make frantic appeals.

Dagestan's top cleric, Mufti Akhmad Abdulayev, described the situation as dire and pleaded to the Kremlin for help.

"The scope of the catastrophe is forcing us to appeal to you," he told Putin via video link on Monday. "Please, bring your attention to Dagestan."

The region's health minister, Dzhamaludin Gadzhiibragimov, said that 657 people had died of pneumonia in the region, including 40 medics.

- AFP

Farmers in China are being offered cash to quit breeding exotic animals as pressure grows to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade that has been blamed for the coronavirus outbreak.

Authorities have for the first time pledged to buy out breeders in an attempt to curb the practice, animal rights activists say.

China has in recent months banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading to humans, but the trade remains legal for other purposes - including research and traditional medicine.

The deadly coronavirus - first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan - is widely believed to have passed from bats to people before spreading worldwide.

Two central provinces have outlined details of a buyout programme to help farmers switch to alternative livelihoods.

Hunan on Friday set out a compensation scheme to persuade breeders to rear other livestock or produce tea and herbal medicines.

- AFP

British lawmakers on Tuesday heaped fresh pressure on the government for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, calling its testing regime "inadequate" in the early stages.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for his initial response to the global pandemic, and has faced weeks of pressure about the availability of tests for the virus.

The country has seen 34 796 deaths - the second-highest toll in the world behind the United States - and 246 406 cases, according to the latest figures.

But despite a recent surge in daily tests and the expansion of eligibility, MPs on a parliamentary committee said: "Testing capacity has been inadequate for most of the pandemic so far."

"Capacity was not increased early enough or boldly enough. Capacity drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity," they said in a 19-page letter to Johnson.

The findings by the House of Commons science and technology committee come after six sessions of evidence involving scientists, public health experts and government advisers, which also looked at other countries' responses to the virus.

- AFP

Pakistan's Supreme Court has declared that the coronavirus is "not a pandemic in Pakistan", ordering the government to reopen businesses seven days a week and forcing a provincial government to reopen shopping malls.

Pakistan's federal government welcomed the court's orders, made during a hearing into the government's coronavirus response plan in the capital, Islamabad, on Monday.

"There are other serious ailments prevailing in the country, from which people are dying daily and those ailments are not being catered and the Coronavirus (Covid-19), which apparently is not a pandemic in Pakistan, is swallowing so huge money," read Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed's order.

On Monday, countrywide coronavirus cases rose by 1 841 to 43 966, with 35 deaths taking the death toll since the outbreak began to 939, government data showed.

In recent days, Prime Minister Imran Khan's government has loosened many lockdown restrictions, allowing smaller markets to reopen five days a week during daylight hours. This week, shopping malls in three of the country's four provinces were due to reopen.

At Monday's hearing, Ahmed ordered the government of Sindh province - where Pakistan's largest city of Karachi is located and which has seen almost 40% of all coronavirus cases in the country - to reopen malls, following provinces controlled by Khan's party.

Mall management companies welcomed the announcement.

- Al Jazeera

Australia threatened Tuesday to take China to the World Trade Organisation to counter a fresh round of punitive sanctions, as the two countries clashed over an investigation into the origins and spread of the coronavirus.

Canberra said it may seek remedial action to overturn almost 81% in tariffs on barley exports - the latest in a series of Chinese sanctions that many believe are politically motivated.

Beijing on Monday announced the measures - earmarked to last five years - after finding Australian subsidies and dumping had "substantially damaged domestic industry".

Both sides have insisted that barley is a technical trade issue, and Australian officials have played down fears of a trade war, saying there would be no "tit-for-tat" response.

"To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement," agriculture minister David Littleproud said.

"This is something that we will strongly reject, the premise that the Australian barley farmer is subsidised in any way, shape or form."

"We will now work through the determination by Chinese officials, calmly and methodically, and reserve our right to go to the World Trade Organisation to get the independent umpire to make that determination."

The move has worsened a relationship that has become increasingly troubled as Beijing has become more assertive in flexing its growing military, economic and diplomatic power in the Asia-Pacific region.

- AFP

Some of the world's leading tennis stars, including men's number one Novak Djokovic, have rallied behind relief efforts led by Pakistan's top tennis player to help feed people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and Indian ace Sania Mirza are among a star-studded line-up of present and former athletes who have donated their signed memorabilia to the Stars Against Hunger auction.

The initiative was launched last week by doubles specialist Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, who has been raising funds and delivering door-to-door ration packs to poor families suffering due to the country's partial lockdown.

"This Covid-19 has affected every single one of us, in every country, so I'm just trying to play my part in the best way I can and trying to help the needy, the poor and the daily wagers during this pandemic," Qureshi, world-ranked 50, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

His foundation Stop War Start Tennis in collaboration with Rizq, a non-profit organisation, has so far helped feed more than 2 500 families in underprivileged areas of the country's most populous province of Punjab.

"I feel like tennis has given me this opportunity and platform to help these people out right now and it's a need of the hour as well," the 40-year old said. "The most important thing is compassion toward humanity."

British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan, Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, former fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, and international squash legend Jahangir Khan have also pitched in with autographed gloves, shirt, ball, helmet and racket respectively.

- Al Jazeera

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