Health

Since China began frantic efforts to curb a coronavirus epidemic in late January, residents in the tiny snake breeding village of Zisiqiao have had to come to terms with a ban on wildlife trading, its lifeline for decades.

The president of the European Union's main science organisation has quit the post he took up only in January, the European Commission said, over frustration at the EU response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Temperature checkpoints and posters telling workers to keep more than a metre apart at Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co's reopened plant in the Chinese city of Wuhan show how the coronavirus has created a new normal on the factory floor.

U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticised the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing it of being too focused on China and issuing bad advice during the new coronavirus outbreak and saying he would put a hold on U.S. funding for the agency.

Britain will have a new coronavirus testing facility capable of carrying out 30,000 tests per day by early May, said the chief executive of pharma company AstraZeneca, helping the government meet an ambitious goal to scale up testing.

Businesses including Switzerland's Clariant and Germany's CropEnergies AG are combining to boost disinfectant production, part of a state-financed crisis programme in Bavaria to lift supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ended a two-month lockdown on Wednesday, but a northern town started restricting the movement of its residents amid concerns of a second wave of infections in mainland China.

Sales of sex toys in Denmark have more than doubled after Danes were told to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus, according to the country's biggest retailer of the merchandise.

Mexico has registered 346 new cases of coronavirus infection, bringing the country's total to 2,785, as well as 141 deaths, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ended a two-month lockdown on Wednesday, allowing people to leave the city, if they were healthy, amid concerns of a second wave of infections as cases in mainland China rose.

Even as medical teams struggled to save an onslaught of gravely ill coronavirus patients and deaths hit new highs, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations seemed to be leveling off in New York state, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing it of being too focused on China and issuing bad advice during the new coronavirus outbreak and saying he would put a hold on U.S. funding for the agency.

North Korea, one of only a handful of countries not to have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, has said that it continues testing and has more than 500 people in quarantine, the World Health Organization (WHO) told Reuters on Tuesday.

Panama registered 149 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the country's total to 2,249 cases, authorities said on Tuesday.

Two pregnant women diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Peru have given birth to babies who have tested negative for the disease, a hospital in the capital Lima said on Tuesday.

From helicopters blasting messages over densely crowded areas to issuing fines, Colombia's military is deploying all kinds of methods to ensure compliance with a national quarantine to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Canada will keep up efforts to persuade the United States not to block the export of medical supplies to fight the coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, while the energy-producing province of Alberta warned of an economic disaster.

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Texas could enforce limits on the ability of women to obtain abortions as part of the state's policy requiring postponement of non-urgent medical procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Even as doctors and nurses struggled to save an onslaught of gravely ill coronavirus patients, the number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations appeared to be leveling off in New York state, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

The daily tally of New York City residents who died at home with coronavirus-like symptoms exploded from 45 on March 20 to 241 on April 5, according to Fire Department of New York data - suggesting the city may be significantly undercounting COVID-19 deaths.