Looking ahead, Von der Leyen called on Europe to stand together with courage, trust and solidarity through this crisis and beyond. She said that European countries will need a massive investment to jump-start their economies.

"We need a Marshall Plan for Europe's recovery and it needs to be put in place immediately," she said.

The novel coronavirus had affected 878,222 people and claimed 89,825 lives in Europe as of Friday, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

In Britain, the government confirmed on Thursday that lockdown measures introduced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson will remain in place for another three weeks.

The announcement was made at Thursday's daily Downing Street media briefing by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputizing for Johnson as he recovers from the virus.

Figures released on Thursday revealed that the United Kingdom's tally for COVID-19 patients who had died in hospital rose by 861 to 13,729.

Raab said that there were "indications the measures we've put in place have been successful at slowing the spread of the virus, but it's a mixed picture, ... we still don't have the infection rate down as much as we need to".