Duterte also approved during a meeting with his Cabinet extending the lockdown in metropolitan Manila and several provinces and cities up to May 15, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Friday. A lockdown in the main northern Luzon region of more than 50 million people was set to expire on April 30.

"I'm warning everybody and putting the armed forces and the police on notice that I might declare martial law. There will be no turning back," Duterte said in a televised speech beamed nationwide. "I have two more years. I will try to finish all of you, including you the legal (fronts), you should go and hide."

Duterte renewed his accusations against the New People's Army guerrillas, who he said have extorted money from big companies and stolen firearms of slain soldiers in an insurgency that has lasted more than a half century. The rebels have denied his accusations and said they were helping villagers cope with the pandemic.

Roque specified cities and provinces where lockdowns, which the government calls "community quarantines," can be eased and allow the regulated reopening of some essential businesses and public areas. Officials have warned of a severe impact on the economy if massive lockdowns last for months and financial aid depletes government revenues.

The Philippines has reported nearly 7,000 cases and 462 deaths from COVID-19. It's among the highest in Southeast Asia but many believe the toll is higher given limited coronavirus testing, especially in provincial and rural regions.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— INDIA'S CASES SURGE: India recorded 1,680 new cases, driven by a surge in the central state of Maharashtra. The numbers bring India's total to 22,930. Officials in Mumbai, the Maharashtra state capital and India's financial center, plan to administer anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against COVID-19 among some residents in the city's crowded slums. President Donald Trump has backed the unproven drug as a treatment for COVID-19 though it may cause heart rhythm problems. Mumbai health official Dr. Daksha Shah says the timeline and details of the program are "under process."

— MORE CRUISE SHIP CASES: An Italian cruise ship docked in Nagasaki, Japan, now has 91 crew infected after 43 more cases were confirmed, officials said Friday. The outbreak on the Costa Atlantica surfaced Tuesday with one sick crew member and all 623 are being tested. The ship has been docked since January for repairs and maintenance by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. Officials suspect the sick crew members contracted the virus while in town or when the ship switched crew. Japan's health minister says the central government and Italy were to discuss repatriating healthy crew members, as well as an earliest possible departure of two other Italian cruise ships also docked in Nagasaki.

— AUSTRALIA WANTS TO REFORM WHO: Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian government will cooperate with like-minded countries to change the World Health Organization. President Donald Trump has directed his administration to freeze WHO funding, claiming it didn't deliver adequate early reports on the coronavirus. Morrison told reporters: "What happens at the upper echelons of these organizations, and how they operate, I think is in need of change." He says Australia wants to see "an improved set of arrangements at the WHO." China has described calls for an investigation into the pandemic's origins unhelpful.

— AUSTRALIA PARLIAMENT TO RETURN: Australia's Parliament will sit for three days in mid-May to deal with usual legislative business as well as some virus-related bills, Morrison said. Its schedule had been scrapped in March and a scaled-down assembly has met only two days since to pass emergency economic measures. There will be fewer lawmakers than usual in the Senate and House of Representative chambers due to social distancing. Other obstacles to their meeting include a shortage of domestic flights and most states demanding quarantines of interstate travelers.

— CHINA REPORTS NO DEATHS: China reported no new COVID-19 deaths for the ninth-straight day, and just six new cases of the virus. Two of those were brought from overseas, with three domestic cases in Heilongjiang on the Russian border and one in the southern business hub of Guangdong. Hospitals are still treating 915 cases, 57 listed as serious. The country's death toll from the pandemic first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year remains at 4,632 among 82,804 cases.

— HONG KONG STUDENTS TAKE UNIVERSITY EXAMS: More than 52,000 students have begun taking university entrance exams with social distancing measures in place, after a monthlong delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exams are stretched over a month and candidates and staff are required to wear surgical masks and sanitize their hands. Students will have their body temperature checked at the exam centers, and must sign health declaration forms. Any student found to have a high temperature will be refused entry. Desks are spaced just over 3 feet (a meter) apart, with the recommended distance being nearly 6 feet (2 meters) between candidates. As of Thursday, Hong Kong's total cases stood at 1,036, with four deaths.

— MYANMAR EXTENDS MEASURES: Myanmar is extending its measures against the coronavirus, including suspending all commercial passenger flight arrivals, banning most large gatherings and locking down virus-hit neighborhoods through May 15. The state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar also says a nighttime curfew in Yangon, the nation's biggest city and commercial capital, could end June 18. The Health Ministry announced seven new cases, bringing the total to 139, including five deaths.

— MASKS FOR VETERANS: South Korea starting next week will strap electronic wristbands on people who ignore home-quarantine orders in its latest use of tracking technology to control its outbreak. Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said those who refuse will be quarantined in shelters where they will be asked to pay for accommodation. Around 46,300 people are under self-quarantine. South Korea also says its mask supply has stabilized and it will send 1 million masks to foreign veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War. It banned exports in early March and has rationed the national supply. South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported six more cases but no new deaths, bringing national totals to 10,703 and 240 fatalities.

— SHARP MASKS HUGELY POPULAR IN JAPAN: Masks from Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. have proved so popular there is going to be a lottery. Sharp said Friday that online orders spiked so much that not a single sale was completed. As a fix, Sharp announced a lottery for 30,000 boxes, each with 50 masks. A person is entitled to one 2,980 yen ($28) box. Applications are accepted all day Monday next week, with lottery winners announced Tuesday. Some Japanese hospitals have complained about a mask shortage and they're sometimes hard to find in stores.