Health

Facebook Inc is pulling out of this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) music and tech festival over growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson for the company said on Monday.

Hong Kong has hired four charter flights to bring back 533 citizens from around the central mainland China city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus originated, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday.

(Reuters Health) - With the rising popularity of electric scooters, emergency rooms are seeing a lot of head injuries, many with vision-threatening damage to the eyes, a small study suggests.

South Korea reported 600 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths from the virus, taking total infections to 4,812, the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

The Trump administration said on Monday it had secured commitments from top pharmaceutical companies to work together to develop a vaccine and treatments to fight the coronavirus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday confirmed two new cases of coronavirus in the country that included an American evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and the agency said 20 more cases were reported by public health labs.

U.S. government military laboratories are working to develop a vaccine for the fast-spreading coronavirus, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Monday declared a health emergency for his city in a bid to force those in a federal coronavirus quarantine at a nearby air force base to remain locked down until more testing is done.

Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday the risk to Americans from coronavirus remains low, after authorities in Washington state announced the deaths of four more people, raising the U.S. death toll to six.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday confirmed that two presumptive coronavirus cases in Florida were positive, Governor Ron DeSantis said during a news conference.

Mainland China had 125 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday, down from 202 cases a day earlier and the lowest since the authority started publishing nationwide data in January.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a politically explosive case on whether Obamacare is lawful, taking up a bid by 20 Democratic-led states including California and New York to preserve the landmark healthcare law.

Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA placed restrictions on business travel to all Asian and European countries on Monday in response to the coronavirus outbreak, its chief executive told Reuters.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Monday that it identified certain antiviral compounds it had in development that have the potential to inhibit coronaviruses and is engaging with a third party to screen the compounds.

Coronavirus is now spreading much more rapidly outside China than within the country, leading the world into uncharted territory, but the outbreak can still be contained, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Six people in the Seattle area have died of illness caused by the new coronavirus, health officials said on Monday, as authorities across the United States scrambled to prepare for more infections, with the emphasis on ratcheting up the number of available test kits.

Mongolia's President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday.

Germany on Monday confirmed at least 28 new coronavirus cases, bringing the number of infections in Europe's most populous country to 157 from 129 on Sunday, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said, adding the risk was now "moderate".

Algeria reported two new coronavirus cases on Monday, which brings the total of confirmed cases to five, state news agency said quoting a statement from health ministry.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that its greatest coronavirus concerns were South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan, but that it was still possible for all countries to contain the virus.