Health

A testing target set by Britain's health minister has driven up the capacity to test people, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday, hours before an expected announcement on whether the 100,000 target a day will be met.

The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen by 475 to 39,791 health authorities said on Friday, with 98 new deaths.

Australia will consider next Friday whether to relax coronavirus-related mobility restrictions, as the growth rate of new infections slows, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday following a national cabinet meeting.

Burials in Jakarta remained close to record highs in April, official data showed on Friday, indicating there may have been many more deaths from COVID-19 in the city than have been officially recorded.

Japanese Prime |(Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he was leaning towards extending the country's state of emergency for about a month as experts said coronavirus restrictions should remain in place until the number of cases falls further.

China's central province of Hubei, where the novel coronavirus behind the pandemic was first detected, will lower its emergency response level from Saturday in the latest relaxation of lockdowns put in place to contain the virus.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would review the state of emergency over the coronavirus epidemic on May 4, and was leaning towards extending it by roughly a month.

A Chinese startup that develops augmented-reality products for use in manufacturing and gaming has found a promising growth area in the midst of a global pandemic - wearable glasses that measure temperatures on the move.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

The annual meeting of health ministers will take place virtually from May 18, with the focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has angered Beijing by calling for a global inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no evidence to suggest the disease originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Iran's death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,091, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Friday.

Deaths from COVID-19 in deprived areas of England was more than double that found in well-off locations, with London by far the worst affected, according to official figures released on Friday.

Spain's coronavirus death toll rose to 24,824 on Friday as 281 more people died from causes related to the disease overnight, the health ministry said.

Malaysia reported 69 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 6,071.

In the battle against coronavirus, Swiss soldiers are using smartphones to test a new contact tracing application that could prevent infections while also protecting users' privacy.

Two medics in protective suits jumped out of a car in a deserted street in central Ankara and hurried inside a building - one carrying medical equipment and the other, paperwork.

Singapore reported 932 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the health ministry said, taking the city-state's total infections to 17,101.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,639 to 160,758, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

Hungary needs to prepare for a potential second wave of coronavirus cases in October and November after a likely slowdown in the outbreak's infection rate in the summer, the prime minister told state radio on Friday.