Health

U.S. House of Representatives Democrats accused the Trump administration of trying to "scapegoat" the World Health Organization to distract from its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and urged an immediate restoration of funding to the U.N. health body, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

On April 5, 61-year-old Mang Phother felt his breathing getting worse and worse. Two days later he was rushed to a hospital in Paris' northern suburbs and found himself battling COVID-19 from an intensive care bed.

Czechs flocked to screening centres on Thursday in a project to test 27,000 people for coronavirus antibodies to gauge how far the infection has spread and help decide how rapidly to ease the country's lockdown.

Married gay couple Dawid Mycek and Jakub Kwiecinski say they face frequent abuse in Poland for being part of a so-called "homosexual plague."

By Silvia Aloisi, Deena Beasley, Gabriella Borter, Thomas Escritt and Kate Kelland

France has expanded its list of drugs that face export restrictions through the coronavirus crisis despite repeated calls from the European Union to lift curbs that could cause shortages in other countries, documents show.

The number of deaths caused by malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa could double to 769,000 this year, as efforts to curb the disease are disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation warned on Thursday.

Britain's COVID-19 death toll in hospitals rose by 616 to 18,738 in the 24 hours to 1600 GMT on April 22, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Tokyo's first drive-through coronavirus test centre was launched this week, as Japan ramps up efforts to prevent its medical system crumbling under the growing weight of new infections.

Two nurses who were singled out for praise by Boris Johnson for their care while he was in hospital with the coronavirus said the British prime minister was treated like any other patient.

Moscow resident Arina Muratova knew something was wrong when the messages she received from Nina, a patient at Psychiatric Hospital No.22 who has become a friend during her voluntary work there, suddenly lost their usual, optimistic ring.

When Hungarian ex-world champion canoeist Marton Joob and fiancee Dora got married they planned to have six children.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday donated vital intensive care equipment to Gaza hospitals but said they remain underequipped for any wider outbreak of the new coronavirus in the territory.

South Asia's coronavirus infections have crossed 37,000, with more than half in India, official data showed on Thursday, complicating the task of governments looking to scale back lockdowns that have destroyed the livelihoods of millions.

African nations that lack ventilators for the treatment of COVID-19 patients will receive some from a donation of 300 supplied by the Jack Ma Foundation, the head of the continent's disease control body said on Thursday.

With just a few hundred ventilators and international aid slow to materialise, Sudan's fledgling government knows it has an uphill battle against a coronavirus pandemic that has brought far richer countries to a standstill.

Germany gave the green light for human trials of potential coronavirus vaccines developed by German biotech company BioNTech, which is racing teams in Germany, the U.S. and China to develop an agent that will stop the pandemic.

Iranians have returned to shops, bazaars and parks this week as the country eases coronavirus restrictions, and the daily increase in the death toll from the illness remained below 100 on Thursday.

The European Union's drug regulator warned again on Thursday against using two older malaria drugs to treat COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, outside trials or national emergency use programmes, citing potentially lethal side-effects.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 887 to 35,729, health authorities said on Thursday, with 123 new deaths.