Latest on the coronavirus: China's virus pandemic epicenter Wuhan ends 76-day lockdown  

The lockdown that served as a model for countries battling the coronavirus around the world is set to end after 11 weeks: Chinese authorities are moving to allow residents of Wuhan to once again travel in and out of the sprawling city where the pandemic began.

Just after midnight on April 8, the city's 11 million residents will be permitted to leave without special authorization as long as a mandatory smartphone application powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance shows they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.

Restrictions in the city where most of China's more than 82,000 virus cases and over 3,300 deaths were reported have been gradually relaxed in recent weeks as the number of new cases steadily declined. The latest government figures reported on April 7 listed no new cases.

While there are questions about the veracity of China's count, the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and its surrounding province of Hubei have been successful enough that countries around the world adopted similar measures.

Deaths and infections

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed the 1.4 million on April 8 as the pandemic swept across the globe.
• Johns Hopkins University's website showed over 82,000 people have died from the virus. The total number of people recovered from COVID-19 reached passed 301,000, according to the data.

Europe

• Spain's daily deaths rose on April 7 for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight compared with 637 in the previous 24 hours. Total cases rose to 140,510 and the death toll was at 13,798.
• Total infections in Germany rose by 4...