Health

Thailand is to close schools and entertainment venues including its racy night spots, and even call off one of its most important holidays of the year to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the prime minister said on Tuesday.

Coronavirus fears led to a historic drop in U.S. stocks, shut borders and disrupted daily life around the world, as governments took increasingly drastic measures to try to reduce the severity of the global outbreak.

Indonesia is bracing for a significant increase in coronavirus cases as it widens efforts to locate and test victims, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said on Tuesday.

Co-Diagnostics Inc said on Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy to expand availability of COVID-19 tests will allow the medical test maker's tests to be distributed to a wide array of U.S. labs.

Malaysia reported its first two coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, including a man who attended a mass Muslim gathering linked to nearly two-thirds of the country's infections.

An official from the World Health Organization, the body leading the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, said on Tuesday that two staff members have been confirmed to be infected with coronavirus.

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc has signed a deal with Germany's BioNTech SE to co-develop a potential vaccine for the coronavirus using BioNTech's mRNA-based drug development platform, the companies said on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday that China's economy will likely shrink 9% in the first quarter, underscoring how the coronavirus has disrupted normal business activities, while China reported an uptick in new cases of the disease, most of them imported.

The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it will deploy at entrances and exits of main cities in a move officials said was ahead of an imminent announcement of a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus.

The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it will deploy at entrances and exits of main cities in the kingdom in a move officials said was ahead of an imminent announcement of a state of emergency to combat the spread of coronavirus.

A piece of research that helped convince the British government to impose more stringent measures to contain COVID-19 painted a worst case picture of hundreds of thousands of deaths and a health service overwhelmed with severely sick patients.

Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday that China's economy will likely shrink 9% in the first quarter, underscoring how the coronavirus has disrupted normal business activities, even as China reported a rise in new cases of the disease, most of them imported.

China's Chongqing city will require all overseas arrivals to be quarantined in designated locations or residences for 14 days, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca Plc said on Tuesday longer-term data from a late-stage trial on its cancer drug, Imfinzi, in combination with chemotherapies showed sustained improvement in overall survival of certain lung cancer patients, sending its shares up 4%.

Millions of people woke up confused, confined and frustrated in the Philippines on Tuesday, as a sweeping home quarantine order kicked in with just a few hours of warning, and Southeast Asia prepared tighter measures against a surge in coronavirus cases.

Philippine Airlines said on Tuesday it will halt its international flights starting March 20 as the country's main island is placed under enhanced quarantine measures.

Governments in Asia are preparing measures to head off a new wave of coronavirus cases as people flee an explosion of the disease in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

China's foreign ministry on Tuesday advised Chinese citizens to avoid travel to countries posing a high risk in the global coronavirus pandemic, as the country tightens checks on arrivals to guard against imported cases of the disease.

Travelers who have visited the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria in the past 14 days will be subject to a 14-day quarantine on arrival in Shanghai, a city official said on Tuesday.

China's Shandong province will require all overseas arrivals to be quarantined in designated locations or residences for 14 days, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.