WASHINGTON: US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alice Wells has said the United States would provide one million dollars to Pakistan under USAID programme to bolster monitoring and rapid response against Coronavirus.

In a tweet, she said that the US and Pakistan both were longstanding partners in tackling global health challenges.

Alice Wells further said that there were more than hundred Pakistani graduates engaged in the lab training of Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, investigating Coronavirus cases in Punjab and Gilgit Baltistan.

And the U.S. and #Pakistan are longstanding partners in tackling global health challenges. There are 100+ recent Pakistani graduates of @CDCgov's epidemiology lab training on the ground investigating #COVID19 cases in #GilgitBaltistan & #Punjab right now. AGW #Partners4Prosperity

— State_SCA (@State_SCA) March 19, 2020

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The coronavirus has infected more than 204,000 people around the world and the death toll has exceeded 8,700.

In South Korea, with 93 more cases of the COVID-19   number of infections cases rose to 8,413. The newly confirmed cases stayed below 100 for the fourth consecutive day.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 139 more patients were discharged from quarantine after full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 1,540.

Iran announced that the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 17,361, of whom 1,135 have died while 5,710 have recovered.